Medical students perceptions regarding the curriculum in community medicine: A cross sectional study

Introduction: Community Medicine (CM) is meant to equip the students with the knowledge and skills order to identify the prevalent health problems in the community and find methods of alleviating them. The present study is undertaken to assess the general perception of students towards Community medicine and analyze if students prefer community medicine for a career. Materials and Methods: This was a cross sectional study, carried out in a Government Medical college of Dhule City, from August to October 2017. Present study carried out among students from IV and VII semesters who belonged to 2nd year and Final (3rd) year part I of MBBS respectively. A predesigned, pretested, semi structured questionnaire was used for evaluation. Data was analyzed with SPSS version 20.0. Results: 165 students were included in the study; of them 50.3% were females. Common general perception of Community medicine was as paraclinical subject by 55.7%, as only preventive and health education role by 77.6% and 65.5% students. 83% thought that the curriculum is relevant to present era. 50.9% had perception of CM focus only on prevention while there were varied views regarding the topic irrelevant and exempted from the syllabus. 47.9% felt than CM lack application and needs practical example rather than just being theoretical. Only 36% students were ready to opt career in community medicine. Conclusion: Students seem to understand the subject and don't have an issue with the topics, or its projection, however there is reluctance to choose it as a career.