Medical students and physicians’ knowledge and perceptions about euthanasia
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Summary. Euthanasia is considered the act of finishing the life of a patient, previously requested by this one to end the suffering or the pain of any terminal sickness with no perspective of cure. Objective. Evaluate the knowledge and perceptions about euthanasia in medical students and physicians, demonstrating the knowledge and classifying the perception about euthanasia in medical students and physicians. Methodology. This is a clinical-epidemiologic, mixed cross-sectional observational study with non-probabilistic sampling by convenience in medical students and physicians from a hospital in Venezuela. Results. The sample studied had a distribution according to the level of instruction of: 64.85% students, 19.33% medical residents and 15.82% physicians. They showed a middle level of knowledge distributed in: 84.4% physicians, 77.3% medical residents
and 80.5% students (p 0.051). According to the level of knowledge and support to euthanasia, 76.18% have a middle level of knowledge (p 0.0002). Conclusion. Results showed that a middle level of knowledge about euthanasia exists, particularly in the students’ population. Euthanasia was not perceived in a negative way, showing a high significance in attention to the ethical implications that surround this concept.
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