Level of ethical-legal knowledge of medicine graduants: cross-sectional study in the year of 2020

Abstract

Introduction: Complaints about medical malpractice are frequent. Therefore, investigating how the medical student formation is made concerning the ethical and legal aspects, can contribute to its improvement. Objective: To evaluate and compare the level of knowledge of medical students from a university about ethical and legal aspects of the profession, based on their formation in the disciplines of the related axis (Medical Ethics and Bioethics; Legal Medicine and Deontology/Medical Forensics and Good Practice). Method: Cross-sectional study carried out through the application of an online questionnaire (August-November/2020) based on the Code of Medical Ethics (CME) and the Code of Ethics for Medical Student- 10 sociodemographic and 12 objective questions (Topics: “Professional Confidentiality”, “Medical student’s Interpersonal Relations”, “Medical Publicity”, “Relations with Patients and Families”, “Human Rights”, “Fundamental Principles”, “Medical Activity” and “Telemedicine”). A total of 116 students were evaluated at the start, middle and end of the medical course. The Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn tests were used for comparisons. The Chi-Square and Fisher’s exact tests were used for the association of categorical variables. Results: The performance increased throughout the course, with statistical significance between the average number of correct answers in the 1st, 6th and 10th/12th periods: 5.1; 6.7 and 7.8, (p-value <0.001). The analysis by thematic blocks, on the other hand, did not show a statistical association of correct answers with progress in the medical course (p-value >0.05) for broad-reaching topics and development of competences from the basic cycle, such as “Medical Publicity”, “Relations with Patients and Families”, “Telemedicine” and “Medical Student’s Interpersonal Relations” - with emphasis on the student’s limitations in providing care. As for topics that required competences inherent to the disciplines of the ethical-legal axis, this association was identified (p-value <0.05), as follows: “Professional Confidentiality”, “Human Rights”, “Fundamental Principles”, “Medical Activity” and “Medical Student’s Interpersonal Relations” - specifically on the use of electronics. Finally, the highest percentage of correct answers (95.7%) is associated with “Medical Student’s Interpersonal Relations”, with an emphasis on the student’s limitations. While the lowest rates were found in “Professional Confidentiality” (18.1%), “Medical Activity” (33.6%) and “Human Rights” (25%)”. Conclusion: There is an association between the medical formation proposed by the ethical-legal axis, and the effective increase of the medical student’s level of knowledge concerning the ethical-legal aspects of the profession.