Because emergency departments are often the first point of contact for victims of violence, it is critical to provide the appropriate treatment in compliance with all necessary medicolegal precautions. For this reason, a randomized controlled trial was conducted at the Policlinico Hospital of Milan (Italy) in which an intervention group (12 physicians) received a 6-h course on clinical forensic medicine and their performance in medicolegal procedures in claimed cases of violence was compared with that of a control group (13 physicians) by means of a 16-item assessment scale over the 3 months before and the 3 months after the course. Overall, 195 medical records were included in the statistical analysis. Out of these cases, 105 occurred before the course (60 analyzed by the control group and 45 by the intervention group) and 90 occurred after the course (45 analyzed by the control group and 45 by the intervention group). The results showed that the overall mean score of physicians who participated to the course increased from 14.0 (IQR 7.0) to 19.0 (IQR 8.0) with a p-value < 0.0001 and that the comparison between the intervention group and the control group after the course was 19.0 (IQR = 8.0) and 14.0 (IQR = 7.0), respectively, with a p-value < 0.0001. The improvement was very little and below the expectations pointing out that educational courses, although they can be a first step towards raising the ED physicians’ awareness of clinical forensics, may not be enough and that more structured training and new strategies should be implemented.

Clinical forensic medicine in emergency departments: a pilot study of a forensic training and evaluation of its effectiveness in an Italian hospital / S. Tambuzzi, C. Rossi, D. Pavanello, R. Primavera, G. Costantino, C. Cattaneo. - In: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LEGAL MEDICINE. - ISSN 0937-9827. - (2024), pp. 1-10. [Epub ahead of print] [10.1007/s00414-024-03313-0]

Clinical forensic medicine in emergency departments: a pilot study of a forensic training and evaluation of its effectiveness in an Italian hospital

S. Tambuzzi
Primo
;
R. Primavera;G. Costantino;C. Cattaneo
Ultimo
2024

Abstract

Because emergency departments are often the first point of contact for victims of violence, it is critical to provide the appropriate treatment in compliance with all necessary medicolegal precautions. For this reason, a randomized controlled trial was conducted at the Policlinico Hospital of Milan (Italy) in which an intervention group (12 physicians) received a 6-h course on clinical forensic medicine and their performance in medicolegal procedures in claimed cases of violence was compared with that of a control group (13 physicians) by means of a 16-item assessment scale over the 3 months before and the 3 months after the course. Overall, 195 medical records were included in the statistical analysis. Out of these cases, 105 occurred before the course (60 analyzed by the control group and 45 by the intervention group) and 90 occurred after the course (45 analyzed by the control group and 45 by the intervention group). The results showed that the overall mean score of physicians who participated to the course increased from 14.0 (IQR 7.0) to 19.0 (IQR 8.0) with a p-value < 0.0001 and that the comparison between the intervention group and the control group after the course was 19.0 (IQR = 8.0) and 14.0 (IQR = 7.0), respectively, with a p-value < 0.0001. The improvement was very little and below the expectations pointing out that educational courses, although they can be a first step towards raising the ED physicians’ awareness of clinical forensics, may not be enough and that more structured training and new strategies should be implemented.
Clinical forensic medicine; Emergency departments; Forensic in hospitals; Forensic training; Violence by others
Settore MEDS-25/A - Medicina legale
Settore MEDS-05/A - Medicina interna
2024
27-ago-2024
Article (author)
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
s00414-024-03313-0.pdf

accesso aperto

Descrizione: online first
Tipologia: Publisher's version/PDF
Dimensione 815.51 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
815.51 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri
Pubblicazioni consigliate

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/1128356
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 0
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 1
social impact