Students who wish to specialize in forensic medicine vs. their fellow students: motivations, attitudes and reactions during autopsy practice.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the particular features of students who express the desire to follow a forensic career.


METHODS
Three hundred and four 6th-year students attending the compulsory practice in forensic medicine in the academic year 2005-2006 were asked to fill in a self-administered questionnaire at the end of the course.


RESULTS
The predominant motivation for following forensics was the scientific interest (39.7%). Gender, marital status, religion, place of residence, number of siblings, father/mother being a health professional, being a religious individual were not associated with forensics. Higher grades were a negative predictor for the forensic specialty. A trend linking rejection of an afterlife and orientation towards forensic medicine was found. The fear of death was more intense in students rejecting forensics. Feelings of fear, aversion and grief during the last day of autopsy seemed to be important negative predictors. Stereotypes about forensic doctors (such as "forensic doctors have a peculiar character") significantly modified the decision of students, but the beliefs about the role of the autopsy practice (cause of anxiety for death, stimulus to live every moment in life) did not.


CONCLUSIONS
Medical students who want to follow forensics present only small differences concerning their inherent features, beliefs, reactions, emotions and attitudes, compared with the rest of their fellow students.
Papadodima
Stavroula A
SA
Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Faculty Of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, M Asias 75, Athens, Greece. stpapd@gmail.com
Sergentanis
Theodoros N
TN
Iliakis
Roussos G
RG
Sotiropoulos
Konstantinos C
KC
Spiliopoulou
Chara A
CA
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001344:Autopsy; D002321:Career Choice; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008511:Medicine; D009042:Motivation; D013038:Specialization; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires