Table 3 Categories and issues for the theme, “Factors that increase quality of life in the medical program” from focus groups
From: What do medical students think about their quality of life? A qualitative study
CATEGORY | ISSUES | EXAMPLES |
|---|---|---|
Feeling useful | Acknowledgment | “Contact with patients makes you feel useful and contextualizes the study.” |
Satisfaction | Having pleasure in activities | “Sometimes you have to work the whole day long without eating. But you learn a lot of things, you live, you get enthusiastic. Then it is all happiness. You extract happiness from the moment when you are doing what you like to do, what you have always wanted to do. In medical school any effort is worthwhile. At that moment I consider my quality of life to be good.” |
Significant relationships | Friends, boyfriend/girlfriend, family | “Good relationships within medical school increases quality of life.” |
“Having breakfast with my mother increases my quality of life.” | ||
Time management | Organization | “You should think: I am not only a medical student; I am a citizen with a girlfriend, family and friends. If you recognize that, you will organize better your time, you will try to do things you like at the right moment and try not to demand so much from yourself.” |
Significant experiences | Personal development | “Medical school promotes personal growth.” |
Teachers | Good examples | “Good teachers increase quality of life.” |
Methodology | PBL | “When you do not know the PBL method your quality of life decreases. When you get adapted to it, quality of life increases.” |
Extracurricular activities | “Participating in research projects and in transformation of society increases my quality of life.” |