Introduction: Being in medical school has always been considered to be an extremely stressful academic journey. Considering the fact that it is impossible to eliminate stress from medical training, it is therefore, imperative that it is well understood that excessive stress can causes physical and mental health crippling. Persistent stress can impair students’ academic achievement and personal or professional development. Hence, the needed to determine the extent of the stress experienced by the students.

Aim: The main objective of the study is to determine the prevalence and determinants of stress among second year medical students at MCS School of Medicine.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study design was used, utilizing a validated questionnaire, the MSSQ, to evaluate stress levels and stressors. School and ethical committee clearance was obtained prior to the study. 201 Medical students were administered with the questionnaires and then Data was analysed using SPSS version 12.

Results: A total of 201 second year medical students participated and responded to the questionnaire, 78 (38.8%) of which were female students, while the remaining 123 (61.2%) were male students. The prevalence of stress was found to be, 2.0%, 12.4 %, 60.4%, and 19.4% for mild stress, moderate stress, high stress and severe stress respectively.

Keywords: Stress, Second year medical students, Factors of medical school stress, Mental health
Rationale: Ideally, medical education has been reported to be one of the most stressful academic curricula worldwide, negatively affecting the physical and mental health of medical students. It is therefore hoped that this study will help determine the common factors tagged with the stress and suggest the definite solutions that can be provided to the students so as to help them in dealing the stress.

Abbreviations: ARS- Academic related stressors; BDS- Bachelors of Dental Surgery; CBU SoM- The Copperbelt University School of Medicine; DRS- Drive and desire related stressors; GARS- Group activities related stressors; IRS- Intrapersonal and interpersonal related stressors; MBChB- Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery.; MCS- Michael Chilufya Sata; MSSQ- Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire; PTS- Post traumatic stress. SRS- Social related stressors; TLRS- Teaching and learning-related stressors.