Level of knowledge about Natural and Traditional Medicine in fifth-year Medical students

Abstract

Background: Natural and Traditional Medicine is a priority in the Cuban health system. Its teaching to medical students is carried out by means of a curricular strategy since the academic year 2010/2011.

Objective: to characterize the fifth-year medical students’ perception and level of knowledge about Natural and Traditional Medicine at "Dr. Zoilo Enrique Marinello Vidaurreta " Faculty of Medical Sciences from the Medical College of Las Tunas, during the academic year 2015-2016.

Methods: an observational and descriptive study was carried out to characterize the students’ perception and level of knowledge about Natural and Traditional Medicine by the time of arriving at their fifth year of studies. The universe was made up of the 368 students of that course and academic year, and the study sample comprised 151 students who started Public Health subject.

Results: only 10,59 % of the students considered that the degree of knowledge about Natural and Traditional Medicine is good. The main difficulty for learning was the few content received, followed by the lack of motivation. According to their criteria, the subjects or disciplines with more content were Pharmacology and Integral General Medicine. When checking, the level of preparation of students about basic knowledge of natural medicine was insufficient.

Conclusions: most of the surveyed students considered that what was learned from Natural and Traditional Medicine does not let them to apply it in their clinical practice. The main learning needs are related to diagnostic methods, Asian or traditional theories and meridians and acupuncture points.