Medicos Opposing National Medical Commission bill have severe lack of knowledge on it: Study

The study which has been published in the recent edition of the International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health revealed that Medical students lack knowledge about the NMC bill, but have a strong negative attitude towards it.

Doctors who are associated with the Department of Community Medicine, Azeezia Institute of Medical Sciences and Research performed a  cross-sectional study among medical students in a private medical college in south India. A tool based on each section of the NMC bill was developed to assess knowledge. The attitude was assessed using a 5-point Likert scale. Separate knowledge and attitude scores were computed. Statistical analyses, Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, logistic regression analyses were then performed.

The study revealed that among those tested only 31.49% had adequate knowledge of the NMC bill. The major source of information regarding the NMC Bill was social media (191; 81.28%), followed by newspapers (107; 45.53%). Further, those who were aware of the amendments to the bill; and who received information about the bill from newspapers were significantly more likely to have adequate knowledge.

The medicos through the survey were also if they were members of the Indian Medical Association Medical Student Network (IMA-MSN); and if they had participated in a protest rally organised by Indian Medical Association (IMA).

The study revealed that Participation in IMA protest rally was significantly associated with a negative attitude. However. the authors noted that surprisingly, among the sample, members of IMA Medical Students Network (IMA-MSN) and those who participated in the protest rally, both had low awareness of NMC bill (14.9% and 44.6% respectively)

The authors also found that those belonging to the main (regular) batch was significantly associated with a positive attitude towards the bill. Having said that the authors shared the result that Superior knowledge was not associated with a positive attitude towards the bill

The authors concluded that Medical students lack knowledge about the NMC bill, but have a strong negative attitude towards it, adding that a Negative attitude is significantly associated with participation in IMA protest rally against NMC bill.

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