Assessment of resilience and coping in undergraduate medical students: A need of the day

Introduction: M.B.B.S. (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) is a challenging period for personal, academic & professional growth of a student. Resilience, the ability to regain original strengths after facing stressful situation is important while dealing with the challenges during M.B.B.S. course. Type of coping can affect resilience. This study aims to assess the resilience in M.B.B.S. students and find the correlation with coping. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on consecutively selected 250 M.B.B.S. students. Participants were interviewed with self-reporting questionnaires. Data was collected using semi-structured proforma, resilience scale and mechanisms of coping scale. Statistical analysis was done using mean, standard deviation, chi square test, t test, Pearson’s correlation, regression analysis and ANOVA wherever needed. Result : Mean resilience score was 5.02 with no significant gender differences. Resilience score was significantly higher in first & second year students and interns. Students with higher resilience score were using problem solving as a major coping. Participants with very good relationship with their family, colleagues and teachers were significantly more resilient. Those having addiction of any sort had significantly low score on resilience and problem solving coping. Participants requiring longer time to come out of stressful situation had lower score on resilience. Participants facing a stressful life situation had significantly less score on problem solving.  Conclusion: Resilience is positively influenced by problem solving, better relationship with others & less academic stress. It is negatively influenced by emotion based coping, exposure to stressful situation, need of longer time to recover, addiction and higher academic stress. Keywords :  Resilience, Coping, M.B.B.S. students