WISH highlights urgency of safeguarding mental health of medical students at Istanbul meet – The Peninsula

WISH highlights urgency of safeguarding mental health of medical students at Istanbul meet – The Peninsula

Doha: The World Innovation Summit for Health, a global health initiative of Qatar Foundation, called attention to the lack of protection against mental health challenges for medical students and healthcare professionals at the 71st General Assembly of the International Federation of Medical Students Association (IFMSA) in Istanbul. It is the largest youth-led global assembly of medical students in the world.

In a session titled, ‘Tangled Minds: Safeguarding the mental health of medical students,’ Nick Bradshaw, World Innovation Summit for Health’s (WISH) Director of Partnerships and Outreach, raised concern over the poor levels of mental health medical students' experience, identifying burnout as one of the top factors affecting their mental well-being.

Among medical students, burnout – where stress is not successfully managed – can lead to serious mental health issues. “Medical students are statistically less prone to mental health issues when they start their studies, and yet within a year they average significantly lower levels of mental health than students in other disciplines, so there’s clearly an issue that needs to be tackled,” Bradshaw told an audience of international medical student representatives.

Bradshaw pointed out that burnout may manifest in a number of ways. “It may surface as increased headaches, sleeplessness, poor concentration, gastrointestinal