TITLE:
Self-Reported Experiences, Attitudes and Expectations of Infant Contacts in Medical Students; A Cross-Sectional Study in Ten Years’ Interval
AUTHORS:
A. Marita Valkama, Mailis Mäkelä, Jarmo Salo, Marja Ojaniemi
KEYWORDS:
Medical Students, Experiences, Infants
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Clinical Medicine,
Vol.8 No.4,
April
30,
2017
ABSTRACT: Introduction: Medical students worked earlier as independent practitioners before paediatrics courses. Now it is denied. We evaluated students’ experiences of infant contacts before and after the change. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire study consists of students attending paediatrics courses at University of Oulu in 2004-2006 and 2014-2015. Results: 229 of 241 (95.0%) students in the first cohort and 236 of 258 (91.5%) in the second completed the questionnaire. The mean (SD) age of the students was 25.1 (3.0) and 25.9 (3.0) (p = 0.040). In both cohorts two thirds of the students were familiar with holding infants in the lap, but two thirds had never bathed an infant. A half of males and one third of females had never fed an infant. Students approximated to manage with infants and believed to manage increased with age in both cohorts (p