Characteristics of coping strategies and the relationships between coping strategies and stress reactions in physical therapy students during clinical practice.
Higuchi Daisuke, Echigo Ayumi
PMID 27821952WHAT IT FOUND
Female physical therapy students had higher stress scores than male students.
Buck-passing was associated with severe stress reactions after clinical practice.
Key findings
01Female students had a median stress reaction score of 7 on a 0 to 10 scale, and male students had a median score of 5.
02In logistic regression, female students had an odds ratio of 7.12 for being in the severe stress reactions group compared with male students.
03In logistic regression, higher buck-passing scores were associated with severe stress reactions, with an odds ratio of 1.34.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether buck-passing caused severe stress reactions or whether severe stress reactions led students to use buck-passing. It was done at a single vocational college in Japan, so it may not apply to students in other physical therapy training settings. The specific stressors during clinical practice were not measured, so the paper cannot say which problems triggered the reactions. The authors did not examine age and year of study as predictors because age was closely related to year of study. Female students reported more stress in this study, but the authors note other literature has found the opposite, so gender differences are not settled.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that buck-passing causes severe stress reactions. The study measured coping and stress at the same time after clinical practice, so it can only show an association.