Injury prevention in medical education: a Canadian medical school survey.

BACKGROUND

Injury has a major societal impact. In Canada, injury is the leading cause of death among those aged 1-44 years, the fifth-leading cause of death among those of all ages and is responsible for a burden of US$26.8 billion in 2010. It holds that most injuries are predictable and preventable, and therefore, such statistics represent a serious public health concern. Given that physicians play a vital role in the prevention and control of injuries, further information regarding the current state of injury prevention education in medical undergraduate programmes in Canada would be beneficial. We hypothesise that the results of an observational survey distribute to all Canadian medical schools will demonstrate a substantial gap in injury prevention education integration in the existing medical school curriculums.

STUDY OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the current status of Injury Prevention Education in Canadian Medical Schools preclerkship and clerkship medical curriculum.

METHODS

Electronic surveys evaluating the current status of injury prevention education were sent via email to each of the 16 Canadian medical schools.

RESULTS

Nine Canadian medical faculties (56%, n=9) responded. Eight of the nine medical schools (88.89%, n=8) offered at least five injury prevention related topics in their respective curricula. The most common injury-related courses were Role of physicians in the prevention of injuries (100%, n=9) and epidemiology of injury (88.89%, n=8). All respondent medical faculties (100%, n=9) offered at least a single injury prevention specific topic in their curricula. Most surveyed medical faculties (88.89%, n=8) offered nine injury-specific topics. The most common injury-specific topics included falls, suicide and self-harm, alcohol, burns and scalds, and concussion (100%, n=9).