An evaluation on coping with stress of Selcuk University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine students: Covid-19 pandemic process

Aim: Declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020, Covid-19 has raised significant psychological concerns and physical problems in humans. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between the methods of coping with stress of the SUFVM students with socio-demographic characteristics, experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic process, and professional career concerns. Materials and Methods: The research sample consisted of 644 students from the 1st-5th grades who continued their education at SUFVM in the 2019-2020 academic year and agreed to participate in the research. The research was carried out by filling in the questionnaire form sent to the participants' mobile phones between 14-22 December 2020 voluntarily. The questionnaire consisted of four parts in total, which determined socio-demographic characteristics, professional career concerns, and experiences with Covid-19, and measuring the style of coping with stress. Results: It was determined that SUFVM students used the most"self-confident approaches" (%27) and the least "seeking social support" (%13) sub-factors among the strategies to cope with stress, female students had higher "helpless approaches" scores (%22) than male students (%21), and fifth-grade students had "helpless approaches" scores were lower than the other classes, and the third-grade students had higher "submissive approaches" scores compared to other classes. Conclusion: It can be said that the coping strategies SUFVM students use are mostly problem-based active styles, and they use passive styles related to emotions less, also it is very important for them to develop skills to cope with stressful situations such as the Covid-19 pandemic.