Survey of Medical Students

RESEARCH SURVEY OF MEDICAL STUDENTS
Exploring Psychological Help-Seeking for Mental Health Problems
Research Ethical Approval Reference Number: jnr6-20e7

*** 2x £25 book vouchers raffled for participants ***

Dear Medical Students,

We would like to invite you to take part in a survey exploring psychological help-seeking for mental health problems.

Current government figures highlight that 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem in any given year. What is more, mental ill health is more common in people that experience high levels of stress in their daily lives. Medicine is one of the most intensive university courses offered in the UK and students undertake long days of lectures as well as gaining practical experience in highly emotive health care settings. The current study seeks to explore medical students’ intentions to seek psychological help should they encounter mental health problems throughout their training. This study focuses on general intentions to seek help and does not require you to disclose personal experiences of mental health problems.

This is part two of the study. Part one took place in December 2013 and collected qualitative responses from medical students to questions related to psychological help-seeking. This data was then analysed and used as the basis to develop a quantitative questionnaire for a broader sample of medical students. You do not have to have completed part one to take part in this survey.

If you are interested in taking part then please go to;

https://www.esurveycreator.com/s/960575a

for more information and to complete the survey. You will automatically be entered in to the raffle for the book vouchers upon completion of the survey.

Many thanks in advance for your time.

Kind regards

James Rathbone
Clinical Psychologist in Training
Leicester Partnership NHS Trust &
University of Leicester

Reply 1

shiggydiggy

Done, but with an anonymous name/email. Hope you can still use my results.

I think this is a pretty important subject. Mental health issues are exceedingly common in medical students and it can be a tricky area to seek help for.

Reply 2

rathjam

Original post by shiggydiggy

Hi, thank you for taking the time to complete the survey.

We take names and an email address for two reasons; the first is part of the informed consent process to demonstrate that you understand the research and your rights as a participant. We are also able to identify you if you request your answers be withdrawn from the research. The second reason is that you're entered in to a draw for one of two £25 book vouchers and this allows us to contact you if you win.

When you enter your name it is on the secure website. At the point where we extract the data from the website your name is separated from your responses and you are given a unique identifier number. Your name is stored on an encrypted password protected device and your responses on a different encrypted password protected device. Therefore, your responses are completely anonymised and cannot be accessed by anyone but the researcher.

As mentioned in the advert, and I am sure you are now aware after completing it, the survey does not ask anyone to disclose mental health problems and only asks generic questions about help-seeking behaviour. Like you said, it can be a tricky area for medical students to seek help for and we're interested in why that is. We hope this research can help us to work with medical schools to improve education and support for their students that experience mental health problems.

Please feel free to email me directly if you have any further questions and would like me to add an email address for you [[email protected]].

Kind regards
James

Reply 3

munkie

Some of the questions don't make sense with the point responses, i.e. "likely/unlikely" doesn't fit the question at all

Reply 4

rathjam

Original post by munkie

Some of the questions don't make sense with the point responses, i.e. "likely/unlikely" doesn't fit the question at all

Thank you for your feedback. The Unlikely/Likely Likert scale relates to how likely you feel the item is to be true.

If you feel you were unable to answer the questions appropriately due to them not making sense to you and would like your responses removed from the analysis please do not hesitate to contact me.

Reply 5

tania<3

I completed the survey, hope it helps!

Reply 6

Angury

Completed it, I think this is a really important area - good luck with your research.

Reply 7

rathjam

I huge thank you to those that have completed it so far. We've had a great response rate.

Remember we are raffling 2x £25 book vouchers for participants.