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Level of knowledge on palliative care in medicine students of the catholic university of cuenca, Ecuador)

Abstract:

Background: palliative care encompasses the comprehensive care of patients and their families, to try as much as possible to improve their quality of life when they face problems associated with end-stage diseases. Objective: to determine the level of knowledge about palliative care in medical students of the Catholic University of Cuenca, Ecuador. Methodology: a descriptive, analytical and cross-sectional study was carried out on 187 fourth and fifth year medical students, to whom the Palliative Care Knowledge Test (PCKT) survey was applied to determine the level of knowledge about palliative care. Results: it was evidenced that only 11.8% of the respondents have an acceptable level of knowledge in palliative care. The levels of knowledge by health areas were generally acceptable with 83.4%; followed by the psychiatric area 27.8%, it is striking that, in the gastrointestinal area, pain and dyspnea have little or no knowledge levels with 2.7%, 1.1% and 0% respectively. Conclusions: The level of knowledge about palliative care in medical students is not appropriate. There is a greater lack of knowledge regarding the area of pain, dyspnea and the management of gastrointestinal symptoms.