Medical negligence-perception among undergraduate medical students: a cross-sectional study from Vijayapura, North Karnataka, India

Abstract

Background: Medical negligence is a grave concern both to patients and the medical fraternity. Lapses in concentration, stress, burnout, gross misconduct, lack of knowledge or application, sleeplessness, overwork, lack of continuing medical education can all lead to medical negligence. The trauma experienced by both the victim and the person causing the mistake is traumatic. Medical negligence should be minimised by the application of standard operating procedures, training, work scheduling and provision of support in time of need. Medical students, the future doctors of tomorrow have to cope with the stress they encounter during medical studies and practice. The dearth of knowledge about this issue needs to be studied to find out remedies and alleviate this problem altogether, Methods: Cross-sectional study involving 151 medical students of BLDE DU Shri B M Patil Medical College and Research Centre, Vijayapura, North Karnataka, India. Convenience sampling method was used in this study. Results: 151 medical students were part of this study; socio demographic profile indicates that the majority of the participants belonged to male gender 78 (51.7%) and 73 (48.3%) females. The majority of the participants were from urban areas 126 (83.4%) followed by rural 25 (16.6%). Most of the participants belonged to the age group 18-22 years, Knowledge Grading showed that 95 (62.9%) had good knowledge Conclusions: Medical negligence and its causative factors need to be studied in detail to sensitize future doctors to bring a sea change to this situation.