Abstract

RILLO, Arturo G; PALOMARES PULIDO, Pablo  and  ARCEO GUZMAN, Mario E. Medical Residents' Level of Knowledge of Mexican Regulations for Clinical Files. Rev Hum Med [online]. 2008, vol.8, n.2-3. ISSN 1727-8120.

Introduction: Knowing the Mexican Regulations for Clinical Files (NOM - 168) has become an important aspect in postgraduate medical formation because an appropriate integration of the clinical file optimizes the doctor-patient relation and is a concrete objective reference for legally medical problems. This investigation is aimed at identifying medical residents' knowledge level of NOM - 168. Material and methods: An observational, cross-sectional, prospective and descriptive study has been carried out and included 56 residents of General Surgery, Traumatology, Internal Medicine, Anesthesiology and Radiology. A 40-item questionnaire has been applied and included five areas: personal data, clinical file, outpatient file, and notes on hospitalization and other documents. Data have been analyzed using Kruskal Wallis and U-Mann-Whitney tests. Results: In a 0 - 10 scale, the studied population's knowledge level of NOM-168 has been of 7.88±0.85 (IC95=7.65;8.11). General Surgery and its second - year residency had the highest scores (8.55±0.52; IC95=8.18;8.92 and 8.06±0.84; IC95=7.61;8.50; respectively). General Surgery residents have a higher level of knowledge than Internal Medicine and Radiology residents (p<0.05). There has been no clear differences according to the year of residency or any previous knowledge of NOM - 168. Conclusions: Residents involved in the study have an average knowledge of NOM - 168. Promoting the knowledge of these regulations since the beginning of the career studies has become evidently important.

Keywords : Clinical file; medical residency; Mexican official regulations; medical education.

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