Community health awareness among recent medical graduates of Bombay.

BACKGROUND

Since Independence in 1947, the need for reorientation of our western-style, hospital-based, urban-oriented medical education has been well recognized and much discussed but little action has been taken to make it more community-based. Against a background of 40 years of debate, we conducted a study of 342 medical graduates commencing their internship training in one government and two municipal medical colleges to assess the effects of medical education on them.

METHODS

A questionnaire was administered to examine recent interns' awareness of some aspects of community health, their perceptions of the concept of Primary Health Care and their knowledge of rational prescriptions for minor ailments and for major illnesses of public health importance.

RESULTS

We found a lack of basic health information among recent medical graduates, an apathy towards matters of public health importance, and gaps in their knowledge of curative care and rational prescribing.

CONCLUSION

We suggest that there is a need not only to effect changes in the curriculum but also to assess whether these changes might lead to the making of doctors more suited to work in our villages.