ACADEMIC STRESS IN TEACHING FACULTY OF REHMAN MEDICAL COLLEGE, PESHAWAR, KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA

Abstract

Introduction: Relatively little research has been done on
academic stress in the medical faculty both nationally and
internationally. The present study was conducted to
document whether teaching faculty of a private medical
college developed academic stress due to their routine
educational activities.
Materials & Methods: The 33 members of the teaching
faculty (junior and senior faculty, heads of departments and
administrators) of Rehman Medical College, Peshawar,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa attending a one-day workshop on
Stress Management (October 10, 2014) were administered
the10-items based Stress Self-Assessment Exercise
Questionnaire after informed consent, to be filled and
returned before the end of the workshop. Scoring was
done as per authors’ instructions. Categories of No Stress,
Average Stress, Above Average Stress and High Stress
were designated and assigned to respondents. Data were
analyzed by SPSS 15.0 for descriptive statistics;
comparisons were done by gender and designation
through the Chi Square test, Independent Samples T test,
and One-way ANOVA, keeping p≤0.05 as significant.
Results: The majority of faculty members (27, 81.8%)
were having No Stress or Average Stress; greater stress
levels were reported by female faculty and senior faculty
members, whereas the heads of departments and
administrators reported No Stress, perhaps related to
better stress management practices.
Conclusion: Academic stress was not a significant finding
among teaching faculty members of Rehman Medical
College, Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.