Awareness of medicolegal ethics among undergraduate students in a medical college

ABSTRACT Background: Medical ethics is a crucial aspect of medical education as it guides healthcare professionals in making ethical decisions and providing quality care to patients. Aims and Objectives: To analyze the awareness of medicolegal ethics among undergraduate students. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out from March 2022 to May 2022 among the Medical undergraduates from the second year of the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) to the final year of a medical college in Mizoram. Results: Our study has a response rate of 87.2% ( n = 238) with a male-to-female ratio of 1:1.4. Many students knew the importance of medical ethics in their professional life (96.6%). More than two-thirds of the participants felt that treatment should be given to the patient even if the patient and the relatives behave violently. In addition, 73.5% of the respondents were against euthanasia, whereas 26.5% felt agreeable, which clearly shows that the knowledge about euthanasia is less among the undergraduates, and the importance of sanctity of life comes much later. In addition, 93% agreed on sending clinically confirmed cases to undergo laboratory investigation as a routine, which clearly shows the lack of understanding of the code of conduct among the students. Conclusion: The current study shows major deficiencies in understanding medical ethics, even though Attitude, Ethics, and Communication has already been introduced in the first MBBS under the Competency-Based Medical Education curriculum.