Effects of the mental health promotion seminar 'Coping with stress' in the undergraduate medical curriculum of the Medical University of Vienna.

BACKGROUND: High prevalence rates of distress and burnout in medical students are well-documented in mental health literature. Different types of interventions have been developed in the past in order to reduce stress in medical undergraduate students and promote better coping skills. There is, however, a paucity of studies that have tested the effectiveness of these interventions. This study aimed to examine the effect of different versions of the seminar 'Coping with stress', which was implemented in the first year of the undergraduate curriculum of the Medical University of Vienna in the summer semester of 2018, on students' mental health. METHODS: Invitations to participate in the study were sent via email to six cohorts of students from the Medical University of Vienna. Two cohorts participated in the onsite version of the seminar 'Coping with stress', whereas two cohorts participated in the online version of the seminar, and two cohorts received no intervention (control group). Data on burnout risk, life satisfaction, stress, and knowledge about available help resources were collected via online questionnaires from n = 137 students before and after the curriculum module that contained the seminar. RESULTS: Medical students who participated in the onsite seminar reported a reduction of some aspects of burnout, a decrease in stress, and an increase in knowledge about available help resources. No such effect was seen in the control group. Participants of the online seminar experienced a similar increase in knowledge about available help resources, but no changes in other outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The findings support the notion that the onsite seminar of 'Coping with stress' had a positive impact on medical students' mental health and is a useful addition to the medical curriculum by promoting mental health literacy. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This research has been registered in the German Clinical Trial Registry with the registration number DRKS00018981 and the registration date 14/11/2019.

[An extensive mentoring program for undergraduate medical students: goals, design and realization]. / Mentoring für Medizinstudierende im großen Stil - Ziele, Design und Realisierung.

In this paper, the design and implementation of an institutional mentoring program for undergraduate medical students at the Medical University of Vienna are presented. Faculty members act as senior mentors in a small group setting enabling also peer mentoring (73.6% of mentees reporting a direct benefit from their co-mentees). Program acceptance by mentees and mentors is very high (71.7% of the mentees and 77.1% of the mentors giving the highest out of four rating categories). The adequacy of this program was studied by analyzing the topics discussed in the mentoring groups: the most frequently covered aspects are diploma thesis, clinical clerkship, studying abroad and career planning. Additionally, sex-specific distributions of mentor recruitment and selection as well as participation by students were documented (e.g., female proportion of 29.9% and 53.2% of mentors and mentees, respectively). Both feedback and content analysis demonstrate the success of this large-scale project.

[Medical ethics in the undergraduate medical curriculum and in the health care system]. / Ethik und ärztliches Ethos im Medizinstudium und im Gesundheitswesen.

In German speaking areas, in the scientific establishment which is occupied with medical ethics in the narrower and wider senses, a vehement discussion has developed as to whether or not medical practitioners must ultimately advocate that which is understood to be modern medical ethics. Against the background of this discussion, this article takes up a position on these questions, not only theoretically, but also with reference to the fields of practice of medical studies, hospitals, and the health system. The article presents the proposals of the Institute for Ethics and Law in Medicine (University of Vienna) for the evaluation and further development of the theme of ethics within the framework of the Medical Curriculum of Vienna (MCW). Among other things, this requires an integrated model of levels of ethical competence.

Preventive medicine: self-assessment of knowledge, skills and attitudes of medical students at the Medical University of Vienna.

Prevention and health promotion are gaining importance in modern medical curricula. Aim of this study was to evaluate the self-assessment of knowledge, skills and attitudes of medical students towards health promotion and prevention. In 2012, at the Medical University of Vienna, 27% of the 633 fourth-year medical students (50.3% male and 49.7% female; mean age: 24 years) completed a questionnaire. Results show a high assessment of prevention in most respondents. Knowledge gaps were detected on occupational health and mother-child pass examinations. However, almost all students reported sufficient knowledge on screening and risk assessment of developing cardiovascular diseases. Almost all respondents estimated to be able to identify risky behaviours. Overall, estimation towards prevention of tomorrow's physicians is very positive. However, only 40% believed to have been adequately trained on preventive medicine so far. Relevant preventive aspects were added to the medical curriculum in 2012-2013 with the new block 'Public Health'.

"I find you to be very attractive..." Biases in compliance estimates to sexual offers.

The classic experiments by Clark and Hatfield on sex differences in compliance to offers of dates, apartment visits, and casual sex, and the related informal project of Molzer served as the foundation for the present study. However, whereas individuals in these previous investigations directly approached opposite-sex participants, our research employed surveys to gauge compliance. A sample of 195 male and 179 female Austrian adults were provided with written forms of the Clark and Hatfield scenarios and asked to predict the rates of compliance on a thermometer scale ranging from 0% to 100%. Results indicated that compliance estimates are largely effected by the sex of the receiver to these offers, and to a lesser degree, participants' age and relationship status. The sex of the participant did not significantly effect the results. Relative to the previous work, the compliance rate of males was overestimated, while that of females was underestimated. We offer explanations for the differences in findings between the original investigations and our research, discuss the importance of contextual factors as well as the generality of the Clark-Hatfield findings, especially with respect to females' near-zero receptivity to explicit sexual offers, and point out the relevance of the current findings for health psychology.

Clark and Hatfield's evidence of women's low receptivity to male strangers' sexual offers revisited.

Although frequently cited, there has been no published scientific replication of Clark and Hatfield's (1989) and Clark's (1990) findings concerning women's low receptivity to male strangers' offers of casual sex. Consistently across three identically designed naturalistic experiments (aggregated N = 144), these authors reported a 0% acceptance rate by women. The present research analyzed an informal "real-life" journalistic project (N= 100) initiated by an Austrian magazine, in which results indicated a 6.1% acceptance rate (95% CI: 2.8-12.6%) for a complete stranger offering women immediate sexual involvement. Various contextual differences, such as setting, subjects' age and attractiveness, and age differences between requestor and receiver, probably contributed to the observed difference in outcome between the journalistic project and the original experiments. The present findings point to the importance of contextual effects in naturalistic investigations of women's receptivity to sexual offers.