A voz que deve ser ouvida: ideação e comportamento suícida em universitários de medicina

Abstract

Suicide is a dilemmatic and complex phenomenon defined in general as the act of finishing one’s own life on free will. However, it contains peripheral ideas of motivation and intentionality. According to The Health World Organization, suicide is undoubtedly a worldwide major challenge for the public health. Psychological suffering and suicidal behavior have been pointed as risk factors among medical school students. We have suggested an association between suicidal ideation and life satisfaction, and our main goal in this study is to investigate this potential association in medical school students, in 2017. For this purpose, we developed a quantitative-qualitative research, beginning with the social-economic delineation using an “Identification Form”. After, we went through the quantitative phase of the study, obtaining data through an adapted validated Student’s Life Satisfaction Scale, which data were analyzed using SPSS to produce descriptive and inferential statistics. The second part consisted in a descriptive qualitative case study, using a structured interview elaborated by the authors and conducted with randomly selected students, with posterior content analysis as proposed by Bardin. Finally, we used triangulation as a way of assuring the validity of the research through. Our subjects were 440 medical students of Federal University of Ceara, Sobral. The results indicate that there is a two-way relationship between life satisfaction and suicidal behavior. This relationship is affected by medical school and involves massive study in minimal time, extreme competitivity, absence of family, replacing personal live with life limited to faculty and inherent aspects of medical school, such as dealing with disease and death. We evinced the prominent necessity to amplify our dialogues about this phenomenon, as well as to assist the students in their vulnerabilities involving medical course. We highlight the importance of speech and talking, instead of the silence on the pain that makes itself present and becomes naturalized. We need to walk together pursuing better quality of life and consequently promoting suicide prevention. This reflects directly on medical professional aspects like humanization, empathy behavior and patients care, which are fundamental aspects leading to a professional actuation of excellence in Family Health Programs and public health in general.