Awareness about medico legal knowledge and consumer protection act (CPA) among undergraduate students perusing bachelors of dental surgery in Jammu, J and K, India

Abstract

Background: Dentistry is a noble profession, but there is also growing anxiety both within the dental profession and in the community regarding the increasing trends of complaints and lawsuits against doctors. Knowledge about medicolegal issues is as fundamental to the practice of medicine as the clinical skills. Aim: The aim behind performing this study was to evaluate the knowledge of medicolegal issues and consumer protection act among undergraduate students perusing Bachelors of Dental Surgery in Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir (J and K), India. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted among undergraduates and interns in Institute of Dental Sciences Jammu, J and K between May 2021 and June 2021; students were asked about the knowledge regarding medico-legal laws and consumer protection act in a questionnaire. Statistical Analysis: The collected data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software 22 version (IBM SPSS Statistics, Chicago). Descriptive statistics were performed. Results: While analyzing the familiarity of terms such as medical negligence, all (100%) students were aware about the same, but only 38.58% could correctly answer question regarding medical negligence. Nearly 84.10% of students knew about Consumer Protection Act (CPA), but all of them (100%) felt that they should be taught about medicolegal cases and negligence by legal professionals as they had never been taught about the same in detail. Conclusion: The above study shows that the knowledge and awareness in medical law and ethics for clinical students of dentistry have not been properly understood by the students and the same should be taught to them by legal professionals.