A survey among German medical students investigated whether future physicians in Germany received adequate training to treat various diseases during undergraduate education. The main conclusion was that German medical students did learn how to treat hypertension and diabetes; however, treatment of alcohol use disorders and smoking was hardly covered during undergraduate study. The survey was co-ordinated at Göttingen University (Germany); various researchers from Charité – University Medical Centre, Hamburg Medical School as well as the University of Birmingham and University College London contributed to the paper published online in Addiction today.
A total of almost 20,000 medical students were surveyed regarding their preparation for clinical practice. Thus, the sample comprised half of all medical students enrolled at 27 medical schools participating in the study. Only one in five fifth-year students thought they knew how to treat alcohol use disorders and smoking, and only 7% of students felt they were able to counsel a smoker willing to quit. Over half of fifth-year students wished to learn more about these addictive disorders during undergraduate medical education. > > > > Read More
