Dados do Trabalho

Título

ASSESSMENT OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF ACADEMICS OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL MEDICINE COURSES ON PALLIATIVE CARE DURING GRADUATION

Introdução

In the next 50 years, the need for palliative care (PC) will increase dramatically and this will be due to the rapid population aging and the increase of multiple non-communicable diseases. Thus, as it is a new topic in Brazil and still not well-developed in the medical field, there is the possibility of discussing the knowledge of medical students about PC throughout their undergraduate course.

Objetivo

Evaluate the knowledge of medical students in Rio Grande do Sul (RS) about CP.

Método

Cross-sectional study with quantitative and qualitative variables approach. Academics from the medical courses of seven higher education institutions in the state of RS were included in the study. A semi-structured questionnaire containing 19 questions was applied and the correlated variables were: type of educational institution, sociodemographic information and concepts about PC of the second and fourth year undergraduate students. After data collection, the results were organized and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 21.0.

Resultado

A total of 94 students from medical courses in RS participated in the study, totaling two public institutions and five private institutions. Regarding questions related to PC, 78.72% of students answered correctly about the concept of orthothanasia, 28.72% euthanasia and 61.70% dysthanasia. When asked whether the topic “death” was satisfactorily addressed during graduation, when second and fourth year students were compared to each other, they responded that the topic was not satisfactorily addressed (p=0.01). Among the participants, 45.74% stated that they did not receive enough information about PC throughout their graduation and 85.10% of the students answered that there is no specific discipline on PC in their educational institution. Finally, in relation to safety and aptitude when dealing with patients in PC, 51.06% of students responded that they feel partially safe and fit and 44.68% deny this safety and aptitude.

Conclusão

It is noticed that the medical students in the study showed a growing gain in relation to their knowledge about PC throughout their graduation, but that this learning process is far from ideal, since Medical Schools have little space for discussion on the subject. Thus, the lack of learning about PC in medical graduation ends up contributing to the insecurity and lack of aptitude in clinical practice.

Palavras-chave

Palliative care; Graduation; Medicine.

Área

Oncologia - Cuidados Paliativos, Suporte e Terminalidade