Resumen

CABRERA CARRILLO, Gustavo; BARREIRO RAMOS, Héctor  y  BARREIRO PENARANDA, Adriana. Impact of the postgraduate course on primary health care . Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr [online]. 2007, vol.23, n.1. ISSN 0864-2125.

The certification of the death causes is part of the medicolegal procedures. That's why, to attain a logical sequence of this process is a scientific and administrative exercise of great legal and social importance. This is a cross-sectional and experimental research that was undertaken in Boyeros health area in May, 2004, aimed at assessing the influence of a postgraduate course on the death certification at the primary health care level. The sample was composed of 36 physicians that were divided into 2 groups: control and study or experimental with 18 doctors each. Both were applied a pretest related to the certification of the first 3 causes of death in Cuba, where a logical sequence should be established. The study group received a postgraduate course. Later on, both groups had a test after having concluded the course of the study group, with similar clinical pictures and with the same level of complexity. It was proved through the central trend measures that both groups had a similar performance on doing the test; however, the final test revealed that in the study group there was a percentage of right answers much higher than in the control group. It was demonstrated that the course increased the quality as regards the sequence of the death causes and the medicolegal procedures with the deceased.

Palabras clave : Postgraduate course; medicolegal procedures; certification; pretest; posttest; sequence of death causes.