Exploring undergraduate medical imaging students’ perception of clinical stressors in Ghana

Introduction

Despite the benefits of clinical training, stressors naturally arise during students’ training. These stressors may negatively impact the emotional and psychological wellbeing of the students. There is paucity of literature on the clinical stressors and the challenges faced by medical imaging students in Ghana. This study explored undergraduate medical imaging students’ perceptions of stressors during clinical training and suggested measures that may lessen burn out.

Methods

Cross-sectional study design was employed. The study population consisted of 293 medical Imaging students from College of Health and Wellbeing Kintampo (CoH-K), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Cape Coast (UCC), University for Development Studies (UDS), University of Ghana (UG), and University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS). A self-administered questionnaire with closed-ended questions and a section for open remarks was used for data collection and subsequently analysed using IBM SPSS version 26.

Results

63.50% were males and final year students were the majority (48.80%). The highest ranked stressor was, ‘‘theory to practical” (89.42%) while “sexual harassment from superiors” ranked lowest (0.12%). UCC recorded the highest responses (35.8%). The coping mechanism, “Reflecting on situations and making better plans for future experiences” ranked highest (89.08%) while “taking alcohol or hard drugs” ranked lowest (2.39%).

Conclusion

The data highlighted various clinical stressors experienced by students identifying theory to practical gap as the most prominent. It also provided valuable insights into the coping mechanisms adopted by the students to manage clinical stressors, with reflection, support-seeking, and relaxation techniques being prominent strategies.

Implications for practice

Institutions of higher education in Ghana should institute measures to improve students’ wellbeing in the clinical areas.