Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Apr;2(2):62-5.
doi: 10.4103/2278-330X.110488.

Oncology knowledge gap among freshly passed interns in a Government Medical College of Eastern India

Anis Bandyopadhyay  1 , Anuradha Das  1 , Ashok Ghosh  2 , Rajsekhar Giri  3 , Nilay Biswas  4
Affiliations

Oncology knowledge gap among freshly passed interns in a Government Medical College of Eastern India

Anis Bandyopadhyay et al. South Asian J Cancer. 2013 Apr.

Abstract

Objectives: A survey was conducted among freshly passed undergraduate doctors of a medical college in Eastern India with the aim to investigate their exposure to oncology patients, their knowledge about various aspects of oncology patient management and their confidence in managing patients with cancer.

Materials and methods: One hundred and twelve newly passed interns of a Government Medical College in Kolkata were interviewed using semi-structured partly open ended and partly closed end questionnaire. The questionnaire dealt with the qualitative and quantitative aspects of knowledge and perception of the interns about the problem of cancer and its management.

Results: A total of 82 interns responded to the questionnaire, with a response rate of 73.2%. About 53% of the respondents have seen less than five patients during their undergraduate ward/clinical postings. Among the respondents, 71% felt they were confident in diagnosing cancer, and about 56% were confident in counseling of patient and their relatives about cancer. About 63% were aware about the role of surgery; however, only 32% and 37.5% were aware about the role of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, respectively. A dismal 12.5% were confident of care of terminal and late stage patients. Preparedness was correlated with exposure to patients with cancer (P = 0.03). Majority (87%) felt the need for incorporating oncology training at the undergraduate level and the most frequent method (67%) suggested for doing so was having separate posting in radiotherapy department/oncology wards.

Conclusion: There is glaring knowledge gap among newly passed doctors and integrated oncology postings during undergraduate training and during internship may help seal this gap.

Keywords: India; interns; oncology knowledge; undergraduate teaching.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Self assessed preparedness of interns in dealing with various aspects of cancer care (in percentage)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Murthy NS, Chaudhry K, Rath GK. Burden of cancer and projections for 2016, Indian scenario: Gaps in the availability of radiotherapy treatment facilities. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2008;9:671–7. - PubMed
    1. Cave J, Woolf K, Dacre J, Potts HW, Jones A. Medical student teaching in the UK: How well are newly qualified doctors prepared for their role caring for patients with cancer in hospital? Br J Cancer. 2007;97:472–8. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sharma DN, Rath GK, Parashar A, Singh P. Survey of undergraduate medical students on their understanding and attitude towards the discipline of radiotherapy. J Cancer Res Ther. 2010;6:11–4. - PubMed
    1. Wong F, Fairey RN. Radiation oncology: The misunderstood specialty. J Can Assoc Radiol. 1984;35:144–8. - PubMed
    1. Medical Council of India [internet]. Graduate medical education Regulations. 1997. [Last accessed on 2012 Jul 26]. Available from: http://www.mciindia.org/RulesandRegulations/GraduateMedicalEducationRegu... .