What medical students think about measurement of their well-being: cross-sectional survey and qualitative interviews
What medical students think about measurement of their well-being: cross-sectional survey and qualitative interviews
Objectives: to find out how medical students think well-being should be measured.
Design: a mixed-methods study comprising a cross-sectional online survey (November 2020–March 2021) and semi-structured online interviews. Views on the frequency of availability for measurement, the format, type and purpose of measurement, and with whom well-being should be discussed were measured. When an outcome was scored 7–9 on a 9-point Likert scale of agreement by ≥75% of participants it was considered critical. Inductive thematic analysis was undertaken on the interview transcripts.
Setting: all medicine programmes at University of Southampton.
Participants: medical students from all years took part in the survey (n=118) and interviews (n=16).
Results: most participants (94%) felt able to give 5 min to measure their well-being at least once per month. Research, governance and individual feedback were all considered critically important. Only subjective assessments undertaken by the individual in real-time were rated critically important (78.1%) measurement tools. Students selected that they would discuss their well-being with other medical students (n=87) nearly as often as they selected a member of the faculty (n=104). Five interview themes further explained these findings: (1) well-being is mental well-being; (2) exercise and support from friends and family are most important; (3) isolation and the design of the medicine programme are detrimental to well-being; (4) there are advantages to surveys, and conversations; (5) personal academic tutors and medical students in later years are the best to discuss well-being with.
Conclusions: medical students thought that measurement of their well-being was critically important for governance showing their support for quality assurance of well-being and peer support. They wanted to be able to choose surveys, or conversations, to measure their well-being, as well as the person they discussed well-being with. Four recommendations are discussed in light of these findings.
Simons, Gemma
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Effah, Raymond
1ca14a34-8092-418d-a7d1-8ee488c0114a
Baldwin, David S.
1beaa192-0ef1-4914-897a-3a49fc2ed15e
5 April 2022
Simons, Gemma
a619e51c-448c-4f30-b860-e31bd4c02ebf
Effah, Raymond
1ca14a34-8092-418d-a7d1-8ee488c0114a
Baldwin, David S.
1beaa192-0ef1-4914-897a-3a49fc2ed15e
Simons, Gemma, Effah, Raymond and Baldwin, David S.
(2022)
What medical students think about measurement of their well-being: cross-sectional survey and qualitative interviews.
BMJ Open, 12 (4).
(doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056749).
Abstract
Objectives: to find out how medical students think well-being should be measured.
Design: a mixed-methods study comprising a cross-sectional online survey (November 2020–March 2021) and semi-structured online interviews. Views on the frequency of availability for measurement, the format, type and purpose of measurement, and with whom well-being should be discussed were measured. When an outcome was scored 7–9 on a 9-point Likert scale of agreement by ≥75% of participants it was considered critical. Inductive thematic analysis was undertaken on the interview transcripts.
Setting: all medicine programmes at University of Southampton.
Participants: medical students from all years took part in the survey (n=118) and interviews (n=16).
Results: most participants (94%) felt able to give 5 min to measure their well-being at least once per month. Research, governance and individual feedback were all considered critically important. Only subjective assessments undertaken by the individual in real-time were rated critically important (78.1%) measurement tools. Students selected that they would discuss their well-being with other medical students (n=87) nearly as often as they selected a member of the faculty (n=104). Five interview themes further explained these findings: (1) well-being is mental well-being; (2) exercise and support from friends and family are most important; (3) isolation and the design of the medicine programme are detrimental to well-being; (4) there are advantages to surveys, and conversations; (5) personal academic tutors and medical students in later years are the best to discuss well-being with.
Conclusions: medical students thought that measurement of their well-being was critically important for governance showing their support for quality assurance of well-being and peer support. They wanted to be able to choose surveys, or conversations, to measure their well-being, as well as the person they discussed well-being with. Four recommendations are discussed in light of these findings.
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Accepted/In Press date: 24 February 2022
Published date: 5 April 2022
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 501990
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/501990
ISSN: 2044-6055
PURE UUID: ee267337-7d8d-4253-ac78-7d9145eb0ada
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Date deposited: 13 Jun 2025 16:30
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 01:39
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Author:
Gemma Simons
Author:
Raymond Effah
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