PERCEPTION OF MEDICAL POST GRADUATE STUDENTS ON LEARNING MEDICAL ETHICS IN THE CURRICULUM- A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY IN A MEDICAL COLLEGE IN MAHARASHTRA

Background: Ethical practice of medicine is an area of increasing public awareness and attack on doctors on breach of the same is a growing concern nowadays. Along with a medical post graduate degree, a health personnel is expected to know all about medical ethics and mold their clinical practice accordingly. But it has not been included as a part of curriculum in most of the institutions. Improving the perception of students towards medical ethics education is an essential task. Objective: To assess medical post graduate students perception regarding incorporation of medical ethics in medical curriculum in a teaching institute. Method: A cross-sectional study including 300 post graduate medical students was conducted in a medical college in Maharashtra during October-November 2022,after obtaining informed consent from them. A self- administered questionnaire about awareness on medical ethics and their perception towards including the same in the curriculum was given to the participants. Result was entered in MS Excel and analyzed using SPSS trial version 29. Results: Among 242 postgraduates who responded,66.9% were females ,70.2% belonged to second year of course,55.4% were from class I &II of Modified BG Prasad socioeconomic scale,71.1% had place of residence as urban area. Adequate knowledge regarding medical ethics was seen among 54.1%, appropriate attitude was shown by 46.7% and practice by 33.1%.Statistically significant association was found between age, socioeconomic status, year of study and place of residence and knowledge about and practice of medical ethics(p<0.05). Conclusion: It is being concluded that even though there is adequate knowledge in medical ethics, future physicians are lacking appropriate perception on the same, which throws light towards need of improvement of awareness and also inclusion of medical ethics as an important part of postgraduate curriculum.