STRESS PROFILE AND COPING STYLES IN MEDICAL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The medical career is characterized by a constant and growing academic demand that demands adaptation efforts from the student. Added to this is the need for optimal preparation, essential for a professional future in an increasingly competitive labor market and developing in a period of the life cycle with characteristics typical of adolescence and young adulthood. The objective of this study was to identify the stress profile and coping styles that occur in students of the medical surgeon career. Therefore, a descriptive, cross-sectional and analytical study was followed. The instrument was the Stress Profile developed by Nowack, applied to 395 students of the Medical Surgeon degree from the Tampico School of Medicine of the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas. The results show that there is a correlation between stress, study habits, exercise, rest/sleep, food/nutrition, positive assessment, minimization of the threat, concentration on the problem and psychological well-being, in addition to the fact that in the ninth and first-grade students presented medium and low stress respectively and that women mostly have medium stress and low in men. It is concluded that working with students in a preventive health program that generates changes in lifestyles and coping in stressful situations is a priority.