ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an approachable guide for prospective medical students to learn more about and deals with the stressors they are likely to face at medical school as they train to become future doctors. It focuses on those regarded as being particularly relevant to medical students. Most medical students will graduate and immediately become doctors. Almost all medical students will witness someone die or be present in the immediate aftermath of death. The fierce level of competition amongst peers adds an additional level of stress and ties closely with a number of personal or psychological stressors that are common amongst medical students. For medical students, the sense of being hamstrung is a constant source of frustration. Insofar as doctors are concerned, burnout adversely affects the relationship with the patient; for students, this can amount to a similar effect or, an unwillingness to commit further to their studies, which can be detrimental to their future fitness to practice.
