2008 Woodie Awards
Med students coping
Alyssa Cashman - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 1/23/08 Section: Metro
Medical communities across the country, including the UI, are considering stress management as a more vital component to medical education than ever before.
The UI Carver College of Medicine is now integrating stress management into mandatory classes for first-year medical students for the first time.
"Focus groups said it was hard to come to [stress management] workshops," said Christine Cork, the director of the UI medical school counseling center. "We decided to bring it into the classroom and make it more accessible."
Janeta Tansey, a UI clinical associate professor of psychiatry, said it is important to teach students coping mechanisms early in their medical careers because that is when barriers to success are first introduced.
The stress-management curriculum is woven into two classes - Foundations for Clinical Practice I and II - at the medical school. Additionally, the school implemented a "mindfulness" course last fall and, more recently, a weekly yoga class specifically for medical students.
An understanding of how stress can affect doctors' abilities is vital, UI officials said.
"When we [students or doctors] are stressed, we lose some of our cognitive abilities," Cork said. "Our focus is off, and that interferes with our work, and around here, that's not OK."
Tansey also draws a connection between poor coping mechanisms and ineffective work performance.
"Students have to value taking care of themselves, so they can then take care of others," Tansey said.
Professionalism, which includes proper stress management, is directly tied to ethics, she said. The UI Center for Biomedical Ethics has had a strong hand in introducing stress management into mandatory classes, she said.
Students have also taken a renewed interest in wellness. A wellness student group was recently formed to advise the medical student counseling center on what types of programs medical students would like to join.
Cork said students have responded well to the new curriculum and that the counseling center has been seeing more students than ever, which she says is a good thing.
"They're starting to see the counseling center as more of a resource," Cork said.
Helping students deal with the rigors of their future careers and school is an ongoing process, one officials hope will continue to improve.
Medical schools across the country are becoming aware of the need for more wellness programs and research concerning lifestyle management among physicians is a growing field, she added.
"We're going to continue to see professionalism become a more obvious component," Tansey said.
E-mail DI reporter Alyssa Cashman at:
alyssa-cashman@uiowa.edu
The UI Carver College of Medicine is now integrating stress management into mandatory classes for first-year medical students for the first time.
"Focus groups said it was hard to come to [stress management] workshops," said Christine Cork, the director of the UI medical school counseling center. "We decided to bring it into the classroom and make it more accessible."
Janeta Tansey, a UI clinical associate professor of psychiatry, said it is important to teach students coping mechanisms early in their medical careers because that is when barriers to success are first introduced.
The stress-management curriculum is woven into two classes - Foundations for Clinical Practice I and II - at the medical school. Additionally, the school implemented a "mindfulness" course last fall and, more recently, a weekly yoga class specifically for medical students.
An understanding of how stress can affect doctors' abilities is vital, UI officials said.
"When we [students or doctors] are stressed, we lose some of our cognitive abilities," Cork said. "Our focus is off, and that interferes with our work, and around here, that's not OK."
Tansey also draws a connection between poor coping mechanisms and ineffective work performance.
"Students have to value taking care of themselves, so they can then take care of others," Tansey said.
Professionalism, which includes proper stress management, is directly tied to ethics, she said. The UI Center for Biomedical Ethics has had a strong hand in introducing stress management into mandatory classes, she said.
Students have also taken a renewed interest in wellness. A wellness student group was recently formed to advise the medical student counseling center on what types of programs medical students would like to join.
Cork said students have responded well to the new curriculum and that the counseling center has been seeing more students than ever, which she says is a good thing.
"They're starting to see the counseling center as more of a resource," Cork said.
Helping students deal with the rigors of their future careers and school is an ongoing process, one officials hope will continue to improve.
Medical schools across the country are becoming aware of the need for more wellness programs and research concerning lifestyle management among physicians is a growing field, she added.
"We're going to continue to see professionalism become a more obvious component," Tansey said.
E-mail DI reporter Alyssa Cashman at:
alyssa-cashman@uiowa.edu
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