Knowledge of ethical obligations amongst dental house officers and final year dental students.

Abstract

Objective: To assess graduating dental students and house officers' perception as regards to protection and management of patient's clinical information.
Method: This descriptive cross-sectional survey among the entire graduating dental students and house officers in a Teaching Hospital in the Southern part of Nigeria was conducted between August and September, 2010. The self-administered questionnaire sought answers to required patient information, patient information management, handling of patient, legal obligation to patient and the communication channel between patient and a third party.
Result: The overall response rate was 87.6%. Out of the 85 respondents, 61 (71.8%) and 24 (28.2%) were dental students and house officers respectively. House Officers exhibited significantly better knowledge of identifiable patient information, confidentiality of patient information, taking custody of hospital care notes and mode of release of detailed information concerning child care to non-attending father than the dental students (P<0.05 ). House officers also exhibited better, though, not-significant knowledge in release of information about HIV- infected husband to the spouse than dental students. Dental students exhibited better knowledge in data storage area, release of patient information to colleagues and police than the House officers.
Conclusion: There was overall poor knowledge on the protection of patient data and relevant clinical information. However, experience in dental practice appeared to have resulted in the differences noted in the protection and management of patient's clinical information among graduating dental students and house officers.

Key words: Ethics, patient information, confidentiality, consent