Bagcilar Medical Bulletin (Dec 2020)
Comparative Evaluation of the First-grade and Senior Medical School Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Thoracic Surgery
Abstract
Objective:Comparison of the knowledge and attitudes of first and last year medical students about thoracic surgery.Method:The answers of the five questionnaires which were directed to the first and last year medicine faculty students were evaluated comparatively. The first 4 questions were about the knowledge of thoracic surgery and the last question was about the wishes of thoracic surgery expertise in the future.Results:There were 71 of first year and 68 of last year medicine students in this survey research. There were no correct answers to all of the first 4 questions. It was found that 15.49% of the first grade and 85.29% of the 6th grade correctly knew the organs in the chest cavity. The first grade students could not give the correct answer to the question which was about the diseases of thoracic surgery, whereas only six participants in the sixth grade gave the correct answer. The students in both grades responded that the stage of the disease was important in the treatment of lung cancer. For the question evaluating the treatment methods of thoracic surgery, both student groups did not answer correctly. And both of student groups had inaccurate information on the treatment of rib fracture. While 29.57% of the first grade students considered to be a thoracic surgeon, none of the sixth grade students were willing to be a thoracic surgeon.Conclusion:The knowledge of thoracic surgery is increasing at higher grades but it is still insufficient. The fact that the thoracic surgery is considered risky compared to other departments and the medical specialty exam scores which are effective in the decision on the specialization have a negative effect on medical students to choose thoracic surgery as a future career.
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