THE INFLUENCE FACTOR IN SELECTING FORENSIC MEDICINE AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS IN SAUDI ARABIA

Backround: Forensic medicine is a branch of medicine dealing with the application of medical knowledge to establish facts in civil or criminal legal cases. It is typically involved in cases concerning blood relationship, injury, or death resulting from violence. For some people, the decision on which specialty to choose is not an easy one. Aim of present study is to assess awareness factors influenced selecting forensic medicine as career among male medical students in Saudi Arabia.

Methods: A cross-sectional study. The questionnaire was self-design questionnaire. The sampling was random sampling technique for all undergraduate male students.

Result: A total of 95 medical students in all years of study Saudi Arabia were included. Concerning the awareness about forensic medicine 52.8% of student they don’t know and the influential factors in developing interest in forensic medicine were personal interest and personal reasons about 84.2% of subjects. The medical students were prefer forensic medicine as specialty by 34%.

Conclusion: The medical education has important role to decline the percent of lack of knowledge about forensic medicine and begin action to establishing mentor programs for all specialties to direct students to pike up specialty that suitable for them.

Keywords: Forensic medicine, influenced factors, selecting specialty, medical student.