Attitudes and confidence in the medico-legal work of general practitioners in upper southern region of Thailand
Keywords:
forensic medicine, attitudes, confidence, general practitionerAbstract
Performing medico-legal work requires skilled personnel. Because of an insufficient number of forensic doctors in Thailand, general practitioners play a major role in medico-legal work and have become the main group of doctors to provide medico-legal work for the public. The Medical Council of Thailand introduced the Standards for Practice in the Medical Profession 2012 with regard to medico-legal cases. This study aimed to assess the confidence and work attitudes of general practitioners in medico-legal work to study the problems, obstacles, and factors related to their confidence, work attitudes and proposal of solutions. The target population of the survey comprised 256 individuals in the upper southern region of Thailand. The data were collected through survey questionnaires and analyzed using logistic regression statistics. The survey results showed that 132 physicians (51.6%) had a moderate level of confidence in medico-legal work. A total of 83.6% had work attitudes in medico-legal work at the moderate to the highest level of agreement. Gender, age, workplace Characteristics, and teaching and learning of forensic medicine courses were factors associated with confidence in medico-legal work by general practitioners; challenging topics of practice included sexual abuse, writing death certificates, and being an expert witness in court. Therefore, they ensure that general practitioners perform work is involving the judicial process.
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