The impact of forensic medicine internship on 5th year medical students' approach to ethically controversial situations and forensic medical cases

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the changes in medical students' approaches to forensic medical cases and situations involving medical ethical dilemmas before and after their forensic medicine internship, assess the retention of their knowledge when they become intern doctors, and identify deficiencies in forensic medicine education based on the study's findings. Additionally, recommendations are proposed to address these deficiencies. Materials and Methods: The study evaluated 5th-year students at Çukurova University Faculty of Medicine during the 2022-2023 academic year. Surveys were conducted at three different times: before the internship, after the internship, and during the internship period. The pre-internship survey included statements probing their level of forensic medical knowledge and approaches to ethically controversial situations. The post-internship and internship period surveys included additional statements evaluating the education received during the forensic medicine internship. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 26. Results: The study included 307 participants who voluntarily completed face-to-face surveys before and after the forensic medicine internship, and 224 participants who voluntarily completed the survey via Google Forms during their internship period. Of those who found the forensic medicine education received in the 5th year sufficient for handling future situations encountered in their medical career, 91.9% (n=282) responded positively post-internship, compared to 70.1% (n=157) during the internship period. Those who knew the difference between a medical rest report and a forensic report were 24.4% (n=75) pre-internship, 88.9% (n=273) post-internship, and 75% (n=168) during the internship period. Regarding the statement, "Blood should be forcibly drawn by healthcare personnel from a suspect arrested after a forensic incident, even if they cannot consent to prevent evidence loss," 28% (n=86) of students pre-internship, 88.9% (n=273) post-internship, and 70.6% (n=158) during the internship period responded "Strongly-Disagree/Disagree." Conclusion: It was observed that after receiving forensic medicine education, 5th-year students' forensic medical knowledge levels increased, and they showed more appropriate approaches to ethically controversial situations. However, their knowledge in these areas diminished over time. Although medical students indicated that they found forensic medicine education sufficient, their confidence in handling forensic medical situations decreased over time. We believe that standardizing forensic medicine internship education and organizing periodic training sessions before and after graduation would help enhance physicians' forensic medical knowledge, promote ethical behavior, and ensure the retention of this knowledge.