The effect of student training on accuracy of completion of death certificates.
BACKGROUND
Death certificates are an invaluable source of statistical and medical information, as well as important legal documents. However, few physicians receive formal training on how to accurately complete them.


OBJECTIVE
To determine if a simple intervention can improve the accuracy of death certificate completion by medical students.


METHODS
Participants included all third year medical students undergoing their core Internal Medicine rotation at Mercer University School of Medicine at the Medical Center of Central Georgia. Participation was voluntary and participants completed an approved informed consent. Students were presented a tutorial from the National Association of Medical Examiners website. They were asked to complete a death certificate both before and after the tutorial along with subjective questionnaires. The primary outcome measurement was the difference in scores pre- and post-tutorial.


RESULTS
The mean score before the tutorial was 11.75 (+/-3.20) and the mean score post-tutorial was 18.85 (+/-2.56), indicating an increase in scores. The mean difference in pre- and post-tutorial scores was significant (t = 20.39, p < 0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
We found that using a tutorial to teach students how to correctly complete a death certificate was effective.
Degani
Adil T
AT
Department of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA, USA. atdegani@hotmail.com
Patel
Rajendrakumar M
RM
Smith
Betsy E
BE
Grimsley
Edwin
E
D002423:Cause of Death; D003644:Death Certificates; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013337:Students, Medical; D057211:Webcasts as Topic