Apprehension among medical students while dealing with patients: A cross-sectional study in a private sector medical college and teaching hospital.

Introduction: Beginning to deal with patients can be a testing experience for medical students. Many schools have endeavored to understand students' perceptions and acclimatize them to the stresses of clinical work with success. Objective: This study aimed to identify undergraduate students' apprehensions when dealing with patients, explore the underlying causes of these apprehensions, examine gender differences in apprehension levels, and investigate any effect of patient encounters on career choices. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted on third, fourth and fifth-year medical students of Shifa College of Medicine, selected by simple random sampling. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Statistical analysis was done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: Results showed that 22.5% of the students felt significant apprehension when dealing with contagious patients, 11.2% with psychiatric patients, and 13.0% with terminal patients. Male students exhibited more apprehension than female students when interacting with female patients of similar age (p=0.0001) and middle age (p=0.020). Greater apprehension was felt in the Emergency Room (mean 2.66) as compared to in-patient (2.07) and community clinic (1.82). The highest level of apprehension was in the presence of a consultant (51.5% answered either 4 or 5). 128 students (75.7%) believed they would be less apprehensive if they saw more patients. Conclusion: Specific apprehensions among medical students were identified when interacting with different types of patients. Gender differences, clinical settings, and the presence of consultants influenced apprehension levels. Increasing patient exposure was seen as one solution to reduce apprehension.