Stress in U.K. Mental Health Training: A Multi-dimensional Comparison Study

Aims: This paper describes a comparison study of trainee clinical psychologists, psychiatric nursing students and PhD students using a multi-dimensional model of stress. Methodology: A total of 168 trainee clinical psychologists, 94 psychiatric nursing students and 253 PhD students completed an online questionnaire. Multiple risk factors were measured, including work characteristics, appraisals, coping, health behaviours, childhood experiences and mental health outcomes. Results: Trainee clinical psychologists reported the highest levels of demands, perceived stress and psychological ill health. Psychiatric nursing students reported the highest levels of emotion based coping, which needs to be addressed. Alcohol consumption appears to be an important coping strategy employed by psychiatric nursing students. Negative childhood experiences were significantly higher for mental health training groups than PhD students. Conclusion: Where other research focusing on stress at work or in training environments tends to consider only a small number of factors in isolation, this study considers multiple factors on outcomes. This approach is more likely to be representative of real-life situations, in which students are exposed to multiple hazards.