Abstract

INTRODUCTION Stress is an important factor in the educational process. Teaching and learning are stressful processes. This stress can affect one's ability and change his/her performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate stressors of clinical education from the perspective of medical students in Yazd University of Medical Sciences. METHODS This descriptive-analytic study was conducted in Yazd University of Medical Science during year 2014-2015. The sample size was 170 medical students who were selected randomly. The data were collected by a questionnaire including four components: interpersonal relationship, educational environment, clinical experience and the unpleasant emotions. A significance level of 0.05 was considered for analysis. The statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, ANOVA and T-tests, using SPSS software, version 14. RESULTS The results showed that the highest domain score belonged to interpersonal relationship (3.33±0.3) followed by unpleasant emotions domain (3.3±0.3). The lowest domain score of clinical education stressors was educational environment (3.12±0.1). The results showed that the mean score of interpersonal relationship domain was more in women than in men (p<0.05). CONCLUSION The relationship between teachers and students is an effective factor in all dimensions of clinical education stressors. So proper measures such as the promotion of scientific awareness of teachers and educational staff about factors that lead to stress and the best way to communicate with students should be taken to reduce the students' stress.