Abstract

Introduction: The questionnaire based study was carried out with the objective to know the present knowledge of students regarding autopsy, attitude towards autopsy and probability of choosing forensic medicine as a career which can enable to find out ways to make autopsy an enriching academic exercise and further increase the acceptability of our subject. Methodology: A questionnaire based cross-sectional study, was carried out among the 2nd year medical students at IMS and Sum Hospital, Bhubaneswar. The first part of questionnaire comprised of items in form of simple statements for which response recorded dichotomously as true or false. The first nine statements were on knowledge component and second nine items were on attitude of the students. The second part of questionnaire comprised of eight items which contained the eight reasons for forensic medicine of not choosing forensic medicine as career. Results: A majority of students were found to have reasonable knowledge of the basic autopsy procedure. 88% of the students were of the opinion that autopsy has utility in medical education. 68% of the students were confident of independently performing an autopsy. 88% of students proactively searched for information on autopsy. However only 11.54% students reported that they plan to pursue a career in Forensic Medicine.

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