Attitudes of medical students and faculty toward cancer.
The Cancer Attitude Survey (CAS) was administered to second year students before, during, and after a year-long "Introduction to Clinical Medicine" course. The course contained a 14-hour oncology segment. Faculty of the Clinical Medicine Course and nonclinical faculty teaching oncology related topics also responded to the CAS. The CAS contains four scales: Attitudes toward: I, the patient's inner resources to cope with cancer; IIA, the value of early diagnosis; IIB, aggressive treatment; and III, personal immortality and preparation for and acceptance of death. At the beginning of the course, student attitudes were positive; there was no change in attitudes across the three testing periods. Among faculty, dedicated oncologists had the most positive attitudes; students and nononcology clinical faculty exhibited similar trends in attitudes; nonclinical faculty teaching oncology related material had least positive attitudes.
Madden
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Department of Surgery, New York Medical College, Valhalla 10595.
Dornbush
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D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D004501:Education, Medical; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D006801:Humans; D008495:Medical Oncology / Q000193:education; D009369:Neoplasms; D013337:Students, Medical