Assessment of Medical Students knowledge and perception about Importance of Forensic Medicine in crime investigation.

Abstract

Objectives: The study aimed to know the prevalence of scientific knowledge among medical students about the essentiality of postmortem examination. Study Design: Cross-sectional Observational Survey. Setting: Five medical colleges of Pakistan. Period: December 2019 to February 2020. Material & Methods: A questionnaire were designed to access the level of students’ comprehension about importance of post-mortem examination, collection of samples, autopsy report writing and courses taught in Forensic curriculum. Results: Most of the students 553 (79%) have shown satisfaction from teaching and training in Forensic Medicine. 252 (36%) suggested the need to add case base studies (CBL) to improve the teaching methodology. 546 (78%) students were in favor of conduction of autopsy to know the unnatural circumstances under which death occurred. 154 (22%) of them stated that SGDs are good teaching method for learning injury interpretation and 399 (57%) highlighted that there should be more teaching hours for autopsy visits and medicolegal clinics. Conclusion: Students are well aware about the importance of Forensic Medicine and conduction of autopsy. They are reluctant to opt Forensic Medicine as a medical carrier because of limited scope and court inquires.