The Pulse Wave Changes and Mental Status of Students under Workload in Clinical Practice at a Clinical Engineering Training College

Abstract

In a college of clinical engineering, the students have to receive practical training and clinical skills. During practical training, the students sometimes have some troubles about their mood or anxiety. In this research, the psychosomatic states and autonomic nervons system of the students were evaluated before, duning, and after the training. This study examined changes in the mood and anxiety states and the pulse wave associated with workload in students at a clinical engineering training college before, during, and after clinical practice. The subjects were 10 healthy adults (7 males and 3 females; mean age, 24 years). The Profile of Mood States (POMS) and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) psychological tests were administered before, during, and after clinical practice, and the autonomic nervous responses were evaluated by measuring the digital pulse volume under calculation and eye-closed resting. The results of the psychological tests showed a higher level of nervousness, anxiety, and fatigue during the clinical practice than before the clinical practice. The autonomic nervous responses showed a state of sympathetic dominance before the clinical practice and that of parasympathetic dominance during the clinical practice. These findings suggest that monitoring students' psychological states and stress conditions by performing POMS and STAI and evaluating autonomic nervous responses before and after their clinical practice is beneficial for students' own stress management as well as mentors' coaching purposes.