Assessment of attitudes of undergraduate medical students to autopsy demonstrations

A detailed questionnaire was given to medical students to assess their attitudes to autopsy demonstrations and to elicit the reasons for their lack of interest if any. To minimize biased feedback anonymity of the students was maintained and students who had passed Forensic Medicine were given the questionnaire. Two hundred such medical students undergoing training in UCMS participated in the questionnoire. The main questions in the questioinnaire were on the number of autopsies attended, on their reasons for liking or disliking autopsy demonstrations, whether the conditions, for performing autopsy demonstrations were adequate, whether they should be part of undergraduate curriculum and whether only a specialist should perform an autopsy. The analyses of the responses obtained from the students were quite revealing and even startling in some cases. The details are discussed along with suggestions for improving the interest of the students to autopsy demonstrations.