The Relationship between Patient Deaths in Hospital Wards and Medical Students' Emotional Distress: Evidence from Two Newly Established Medical Schools in Zimbabwe

Mqemane Tshababa^1*Regis Chireshe²Julia Mutambara³Mokoena Patronella Maepa¹

• ¹Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University School of Medicine, Pretoria, South Africa
• ²Great Zimbabwe University, Masvingo, Zimbabwe
• ³Midlands State University, Gweru, Zimbabwe

Patient deaths in the hospital wards can have a serious emotional and psychological impact on medical students in the clinical phase of training. While literature reports various levels of distress caused by patient deaths among medical students globally, no such literature was found regarding the relationship between patient deaths and distress among medical students at two newly established medical schools in Zimbabwe. Therefore, this study sought to determine the relationship between patient deaths and the distress levels of medical students. A positivist research philosophy, which utilised a quantitative approach, was adopted for the study. The Gadzella's (2005) Revised Student-Life Stress Inventory was used to determine the sources and to measure the levels of distress among medical students. A sample of 123 medical students drawn from two newly established medical schools in Zimbabwe participated in the present study. Of these, 65 participants were males representing 52.8% and 58 participants were females representing 47.2 % participated in the study. The mean age of the participants was 23.4 years. Results indicated significant variations in distress among the different educational levels of medical students at the p<.05 level for the five conditions (F = 139.95, p = .000). The results of the study revealed that medical students' exposure to dying patients was positively correlated (Beta = .211) with medical students' distress. In addition, results on exposure to dying patients explained a significant amount of variance in distress (F = 23.519, p = .000, R2 =.189, R2adjusted =.181). A correlation coefficient of R= 0.435 was found, indicating a moderate positive linear relationship between patient deaths and medical students' distress. The findings of this study highlight that medical students experience emotional distress due to exposure to dying patients. The study recommends that medical students get training on emotional resilience and end of life care to enable them to handle patient deaths in hospital wards.