Background:

mastery and application of the clinical method in the context of acute chest pain are essential, as it is one of the most frequent symptoms in hospital emergency medical services.

Objective:

to assess the level of knowledge on the diagnosis of acute chest pain in medical interns.

Methods:

a descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out in internal students who were studying Internal Medicine at the “Mártires del 9 de Abril” University Hospital in Villa Clara province, Cuba during 2018. Theoretical methods were applied: analysis-synthesis, induction-deduction and historical-logical; and empirical ones: the survey in questionnaire form.

Results:

the majority of the students obtained a so-so mark in the evaluation regarding the abilities for the etiological identification of chest pain through the history-taking pain. In the same way behaved the result in the assessment in terms of physical examination. On the other hand, the identification of the complementary examination of choice in each situation yielded better results, 20 interns got excellent qualifications.

Conclusions:

the level of knowledge about the diagnosis of acute chest pain in medical interns was insufficient, preferably in the interpretation of the data provided by the history-taking pain and physical examination.

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