Dr. Abdullah Mohammed Alzahem
Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs and King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences
Title: Effectiveness of a dental students stress management program
Biography
Biography: Dr. Abdullah Mohammed Alzahem
Abstract
The dental education stress effects and sources were explored thoroughly in the literature,rnbut the effectiveness of stress management programs received less attention. This study introducedrna new stress management program, named Dental Education Stress Management (DESM) program.rnIt showed its effectiveness in a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest-follow-up-control group design.rnThe new program was based on the principle of psychoeducation and consisted of three 90-minuternsessions, to teach dental students how to better deal with their stress symptoms and to reduce theirrngeneral stress level. Two instruments were used to assess the level of stress of the dental students,rnnamely the Dental Environment Stress questionnaire (DES), and the Psychological Stress Measurern(PSM-9). Results show that the DESM program has the desired effect of decreasing the stress levelsrnof its participants, and these effects lasted for at least two weeks.. Because of severalrnmethodological limitations of the study more research is needed to draw more generalizablernconclusions.