Assessment of Knowledge and Awareness in Handling theMedicolegal Cases among the Interns in a Tertiary Care Hospital - A Questionnaire based study

Abstract

In the near past, doctors are considered God by the patients but, in this era, doctors are threatened by patients by increasing trends of  complaints & litigations against doctors. The doctors should have knowledge and awareness in handling medicolegal cases to minimize  faults & litigations. Hence it is necessary to evaluate knowledge and awareness in handling medicolegal cases among budding doctors.  The present study was conducted to assess the knowledge and awareness in handling Medicolegal cases among the Interns. Methods: This  was a questionnaire based study carried out at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Kaher. A predesigned self-structured multiple-choice  questionnaire containing 21 questions was framed based on knowledge and awareness and was prepared in Google forms and sent to 116  Interns who were posted in various departments after obtaining informed consent. The results obtained in the study showed that the  interns had enough knowledge about consent, inquest, and MCCD and also had enough awareness of the Consumer protection act, 2019  and issuing injury certificates but the interns lagged some knowledge in certain IPC sections, lagged awareness in maintaining MLC  records and also lagged confidence in handling the medicolegal cases independently. Overall knowledge of medicolegal cases among our  interns is better compared to peers but needs to be enhanced to promote knowledge and to avoid medical negligence in their future practice.