부산대학교 도서관

Objectives: Medical students suffer from mental health and academic problems due to academic stress. We investigated academic stress and exhaustion along with psychological issues caused by medical education during the years in the School of Korean Medicine. Methods: Two hundred fifty-one university students from the School of Korean Medicine, Pusan National University, were asked to complete the Medical Stress Scale (MSS), Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI-SS), Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) three times during each semester for two years from 2013 onwards. We analyzed the influence of school term and vacation on educational stress and negative affect with the T-test. The Pearson`s correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to predict changes during the first semester or first years of study in the School of Korean Medicine. Results: Academic stress and burnout increased steadily until the first semester of third grade, which was measured with MSS and MBI-SS. The anxiety level was highest when the students started the first grade and it decreased significantly after the first semester. Negative affect repeatedly increased significantly after each school term; however, it reduced after each vacation. In the first grade, 19.5% of the last measure of MSS can be explained with the first measure of MSS. Discussion: This study extensively reviewed the trends and characteristics of four years of academic stress and its related psychological influence, and discussed its importance for developing a more efficient academic curriculum for traditional Korean Medicine.