Factors that impact on medical student wellbeing

Published 1 November 2013

What were the key findings?

  • Monitoring perceptions across eight core domains can provide an sign of student wellbeing during medical training.

  • The pilot showed that schools did very well on the ‘acquisition of knowledge and skills’ domain, but not so well on ‘travel and orientation’.

  • Improving the ‘culture’ domain was found to have the greatest impact on individual wellbeing. This domain addressed student isolation and personal resilience.

Why did we commission this research?

We wanted to develop a survey tool to help medical schools better understand their students’ needs. Helping them to provide more tailored support to their student population.

What did the research involve?

The survey was designed in collaboration with medical students at Cardiff University. It draws on an existing occupational health risk assessment tool. Two medical schools piloted the survey. It was then extended to a further six to gain perspectives from medical schools of different sizes and styles of programme. Four of the schools held focus groups to identify potential areas for improvement.

I want the full report

Factors that impact on medical student wellbeing – Perspectives of risks