Evaluation of Knowledge of Traditional and Complementary Medicine of Medical School Students

Objective: Nowadays, many individuals in the community apply complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for treatment purposes, protective purposes as well as culturally traditional purposes. It is necessary that the physicians who are primarily responsible for the prevention of human health, should be substantially practitioners of traditional and complementary medicine as well as modern medicine. We aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of medical faculty students about CAM practices in this study. Therefore study is planned to contribute to the organising of CAM in the curriculum of medical education. Methods: This descriptive study was carried out between April 2018 and June 2018. Students of Term I, II, III, IV, V and VI of Diizce University Faculty of Medicine were included to the study. A questionnaire with 22 questions was administered to 276 volunteer students (183 female, 93 male) except unreacheable and non-volunteer students by internet. Results: The most commonly known CAM methods among the medical faculty students; acupuncture (77.5%), cup application (75.3%), phytotherapy (67.3%); the most commonly used methods are phytotherapy (33,3%) and cup method (11,5%). When questioned about the information source of CAM; 31.8% (n: 85) had learned information regarding CAM at the medical school education. And 94.2% (n = 242) of students thought that there was not enough education regarding practice of CAM at the medical faculties. 82.6% of the participants (n: 218) believed that CAM practice should be integrated into modern medicine and performed by physicians. Conclusion: In our study, medical faculty students' knowledge levels about CAM practices were not sufficient and they mostly had not been learned at the medical faculty. But it was determined that the students want this information to be included in medical education and to be used as integrated with modern medicine. Gap about this subjects will be filled with arrangements which will be made in the medical faculty curriculum and CAM trainings for both community and medical students.