DISASTER MEDICINE AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT - A PROMISING PATH TO BE EXPLORED IN THE BRAZILIAN UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL CURRICULUM: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Resumo

Introduction: The discussion about disasters has gained greater relevance in recent years, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, currently, the importance of training health professionals for such situations does not match the proper approach to this topic in undergraduate curricula, including Medicine. This study aimed to verify the perception of medical students from universities in the extreme south of Santa Catarina about the need to implement disciplines/courses on Disaster Medicine and Disaster Management in medical undergraduate curriculum. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed, through a questionnaire divided into four stages, about Disaster Medicine and Disaster Management applied with students from three universities in the Extreme South of Santa Catarina. The data obtained were grouped in spreadsheets without the identification of the respondents, and organized by categorical and quantitative variables, and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: There were 105 participants, most of them women (64.8%), aged 20-24 years old (61%), and enrolled up to their fourth year of undergraduate medical school (92.4%). A lack of familiarity with the Disaster Medicine and Disaster Management field was observed, as well as the recognition of the need to implement courses/disciplines in the area, in which the students showed great interest — the majority of the participants agreed (88.5%) with the need of implementation of a course with this theme. Conclusion: The students' strangeness with Disaster Medicine and Disaster Management and their desire to learn more about the subject demonstrates the fertility of this topic that is still little explored.