Medical doctors and internal medicine students: are they prepared to care of sickle cell disease patients?

Abstract

Sickle cell disease is a denomination given to hemoglobinopathies’s group. It is estimated that there are 25,000 to 30,000 patients with sickle cell disease in Brazil and 3,500 new cases occur each year. In the state of São Paulo, we have an incidence of 1: 4000 live births. Doesn’t have data on mortality and lethality sickle cell disease in Brazil. It is important to emphasize that health professionals be trained so that mortality rates continue to decrease. Therefore, this work aims to analyze the training of internal medicine students, as well as their teachers in relation to sickle cell disease. Materials and methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was carried out with 5th and 6th grade students and medical professors from Universidade Cidade de São Paulo. A questionnaire with 5 questions was applied. Results and discussion: The results showed that students and teachers knew what is sickle cell disease; with respect to the diagnosis most of the students had this knowledge and all the teachers would know to diagnose it; with respect to the clinical manifestations, most of the students knew how to answer the question and 100% of the teachers answered yes; with respect to the fourth question both students and teachers were more often aware of the general manifestations observed. Regarding the treatment, it was observed that the students of the 9th and 12th stages, as well as the medical teachers had the proper knowledge of the treatment of the acute manifestations of sickle cell disease, unlike the students of the 10th and 11th stages, who reported unknowing the treatment of these manifestations. Our studies point to the importance of adequate knowledge of the disease, its diagnosis, its clinical manifestations and treatment in the academic environment to improve the quality of life of patients with this disease, as well as significantly reduce the mortality rate of patients with sickle cell disease.