MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

Audience:

This document will primarily serve students entering medical school or students who are already in medical school.

Context:

Mental health is an underappreciated and under-served problem that requires much more attention. The prevalence of mental health illness in medical students is higher when compared to the population of other students who are around the same age due to the high amounts of stress that accompanies medical school and the hospital in general. Strategies that can alleviate this problem to any extent should thus be taken for the general well-being of medical students so that they are able to perform optimally.

Purpose:

The purpose of this document is to provide strategies to medical students and those entering medical school with ways in which they can cope with the stress they encounter in medical school. The paper will also present a section that addresses medical schools in an attempt to advise them on what they can do to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness, but also provide help to their students when possible.

Document Type:

This document will be an easy-to-read word document.

Design/Format:

Background will be provided in the introduction of the document regarding the definition of mental health illness. Statistics will be used for ethos backup with proper citations. In the introduction I will also talk about the stigma regarding mental health illnesses and the issues that this brings. I will then divide the paper into bolded headings with the sub-categories being the most prevalent mental health illnesses that medical students may experience and advice from professionals on how to cope with these illnesses. I will conclude the paper with recommendations to medical schools and what I think they can do to improve the atmosphere of medical schools and in turn perhaps decrease the prevalence of mental health illness in medical school.

Citation Style:
Both APA citations and referral links will be used for this paper.

A, you can narrow this to consider the emerging best practices underway in medical schools now. You can also look at Canada, UK, and AU/NZ, too.

After you do this, you can turn to more general strategies that medical students might use, as well, to reduce stress, build community, and stay healthy.

One interesting strategy at UMD SoM are the yearly galas, where students create song parodies. Ask me. AND, view some of them on You Tube.

Also on YouTube is MedLife Crisis (Dr. R.) You can find some mental health channels, in his overview. Enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaXoO7AHMv0