Attitudes of medical students and faculty toward cancer.

ABSTRACT

The Cancer Attitude Survey (CAS) was administered to second year students before, during, and after a year-long "Introduction to Clinical Medicine" course. The course contained a 14-hour oncology segment. Faculty of the Clinical Medicine Course and nonclinical faculty teaching oncology related topics also responded to the CAS. The CAS contains four scales Attitudes toward I, the patient's inner resources to cope with cancer; IIA, the value of early diagnosis; IIB, aggressive treatment; and III, personal immortality and preparation for and acceptance of death. At the beginning of the course, student attitudes were positive; there was no change in attitudes across the three testing periods. Among faculty, dedicated oncologists had the most positive attitudes; students and nononcology clinical faculty exhibited similar trends in attitudes; nonclinical faculty teaching oncology related material had least positive attitudes.