Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of an Egyptian Physicians Sample towards Dealing with Medico-legal Cases and Forensic Evidence

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.

2 Emergency Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.

Abstract

Introduction: A medico-legal case (MLC) is one of the most challenging clinical cases encountered by physicians during their daily work. Handling violence, poisonings, and multiple injury cases indicate the important role of physicians in examining such injuries before changing their features through surgical intervention or recovery. Aim of the work: to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of an Egyptian physicians’ sample towards dealing with MLC and forensic evidence. Participants and methods: A cross-sectional study using an anonymous electronic questionnaire was conducted on a convenience sample. The questionnaire included demographic and training characteristics, knowledge, attitude, and practice in dealing with MLC and forensic evidence and common challenges. Results: The respondents were 145 Egyptian physicians and 83% of them did not receive any postgraduate forensic training. Based on Bloom’s cutoff score, the participants had fair knowledge (50.3%), a positive attitude (67.6 %) and 80% had poor practice. No significant associations were found between the knowledge and the attitude scores with all studied variables. Age group >50 was found to be associated with positive attitude better than other age groups while poor practice was observed in age group (20-30 years). Physicians with previous postgraduate forensic training had better knowledge, more positive attitude, and better practice scores than those without such training. There were considerable challenges faced by physicians during dealing with MLCs, such as pressure from relatives (92.4%), psychological stress (89.7%), and proper dealing with forensic evidence (89%). Conclusion: Despite that most of the participants in this study had positive attitude score towards dealing with MLCs, only half of them had fair knowledge and 80% had poor practice. Recommendations: To integrate forensic education at the postgraduate level and take measures to ensure proper handling, documentation, and reporting of MLCs and forensic evidence at medical institutes to protect patient rights.

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