Knowledge And Attitudes Of Senior Students Of The Faculty Of Medicine And Doctors Who Specialist Training On Forensic Reports

Objective: Forensic reports are legal documents demanded by judicial authorities, providing information on the medical condition of the forensic cases, encompassing answers to the questions to be probed by judicial authorities regarding the forensic event, and also presenting the remarks and opinions of the physician. The aim of this study was to investigate the knowledge base, attitudes, and views regarding forensic reports in the medical students enrolled in the last grade of medical education and the general practitioners doing specialty training at Dicle University Medical School Hospital.Methods: The universe of this cross-sectional descriptive study included all the students enrolled in the last grade of medical education and the general practitioners doing specialty training at Dicle University Medical School Hospital. The questionnaire consisting of 8 multiple-choice items probing the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants and 20 multiple-choice items probing their knowledge base, attitudes, and views regarding forensic reports. Data were evaluated using SPSS 22.0 for Windows.Results: The participants comprised 175 (65%) general practitioners and 94 (35%) students. Mean age was 29.4 +/- 3.83 years in the general practitioners and 24.7 +/- 1.62 years in the students. The general practitioners included 120 (69%) men and 54 (31%) women and the students included 65 (69.1%) men and 29 (30.9%) women. The results indicated that 115 (65.7%) of the general practitioners and 83 (88.3%) of the students indicated that they felt incompetent in the realm of forensic medicine.Conclusions: Both physicians and physician candidates should prepare forensic reports in due form and should be well acknowledged about how to do prepare them and also should have full knowledge about the legal burden imposed on them by these reports as well as the legal effects of the reports. Therefore, the aspects of forensic medicine within the undergraduate medical education should be enhanced, widespread and regular training activities should be performed in almost all cities, and guidelines for preparing forensic reports should be publicized.