Impact of a Structured Reflective Focus Book on Perceived Stress in Medical Students During the Dissection Course

Impact of a Structured Reflective Focus Book on Perceived Stress in Medical Students During the Dissection Course - Focus Book in Dissection Course

Status

Active, not recruiting

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

DRKS

Registry ID

DRKS00039440

Enrollment

400

Registered

2026-03-02

Start date

2025-10-27

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2026-03-30

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

F43.0

Interventions

Group 1: The intervention group receives a journaling template (“focus book”) with instructions and completes it daily in the morning and evening over a period of four weeks (parallel to the dissectio

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Age

18 Years to No maximum

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria: Participation in the anatomical dissection course in the winter semester 2025/26 at Mainz University Medical Center

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria: Refusal to participate

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
The primary endpoint is subjective stress experience, measured using the German Perceived Stress Scale PSS-10. The PSS-10 comprises 10 items (Likert scale 1–5) and measures the perception of stress and loss of control in recent times (Schneider et al., 2020). Higher total scores indicate greater stress experience; the internal consistency of the PSS-10 is Cronbach's a of approximately 0.89–0.91. The PSS-10 score is recorded four times: 1. immediately before the start of the study (baseline, T0): end of October 2025 2. after the four-week intervention (follow-up T1): end of November 2025 3. four weeks after the change of groups (follow-up T2), i.e., eight weeks after the start of the study: end of December 2025 4. after completion of the dissection course at the end of the semester (endline, T3): February 2026 Additional variables (including age, gender, previous stress experience, use of the focus book, etc.) will be recorded through accompanying surveys on the PSS-10 surveys.	—

Measure

Time frame

The primary endpoint is subjective stress experience, measured using the German Perceived Stress Scale PSS-10. The PSS-10 comprises 10 items (Likert scale 1–5) and measures the perception of stress and loss of control in recent times (Schneider et al., 2020). Higher total scores indicate greater stress experience; the internal consistency of the PSS-10 is Cronbach's a of approximately 0.89–0.91. The PSS-10 score is recorded four times: 1. immediately before the start of the study (baseline, T0): end of October 2025 2. after the four-week intervention (follow-up T1): end of November 2025 3. four weeks after the change of groups (follow-up T2), i.e., eight weeks after the start of the study: end of December 2025 4. after completion of the dissection course at the end of the semester (endline, T3): February 2026 Additional variables (including age, gender, previous stress experience, use of the focus book, etc.) will be recorded through accompanying surveys on the PSS-10 surveys.

—

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
Perceived self-care competence, measured using a modified version of the Appraisal of Self-Care Agency Scale-Revised (ASAS-R) as a mean score (Likert scale 1–5) at the end of the dissection course (week 16).	—

Countries

Germany

Contacts

Public ContactKristina Gottfried

Rudolf Frey Lernklinik, Universitätsmedizin, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

kristina.gottfried@uni-mainz.de06131-179610

Outcome results

None listed

Source: DRKS (via WHO ICTRP) · Data processed: Apr 4, 2026