A Supply of Information towards Academic Stress in Students Pursuing Pharmacy Programme in India – An Exploratory Study

Challenging stimulus can lead to positive outcomes such as motivation and improved task performance while threatening ones or distress can result in anxiety, depression and stress. The current prospective observational exploratory study was designed to assess the stressors causing academic stress in pharmacy students of India. In the study a standard stressors scale was designed with 35 questionnaires as open – ended questions to assess both the positive and negative responses of the student participants in a pharmacy institute of Andhra Pradesh. As based on hypothesis of assumption the stressors were categorized as curriculum framework and course of study, faculty and academic learning process, peer evaluation and placement cell and its activities. The study involved 603 participants out which 253 (42%) were male and 350 (58%) were female, the education qualification of the sample 94 were Diploma students, 246 were B. Pharmacy students, 103 were M. Pharmacy students and 160 were Pharm. D students including 20 students of post baccalaureate programme. In our study, the response in pharmacy students towards the stressors was found positive. In conclusion, our study was able to assess certain stressors with a help of a self-developed and administered standard stressors scale, from which the stressor component designed reported a considerable stress in pharmacy students which is negligible in regard to the sample size, but in specific it’s the responsibility of the institution and faculty team for early screening and intervention are advisable to limit and minimise the stress.