Cancer control knowledge, attitudes, and perceived skills among medical students

Background. The Cancer Prevention and Control Education (CPACE) program aim s to strengthen and coordinate curriculum offerings in cancer prevention an d control for medical, graduate nursing and public health students. Methods . Students were surveyed on cancer-related knowledge and confidence as part of needs assessment and evaluation efforts. The students completed self-ad ministered surveys (response rate 78%). Descriptive and stratified analysis and ANOVA were conducted. Results. Knowledge and confidence generally incr eased-with each successive class year, but confidence varied markedly acros s specific counseling scenarios and by gender. While the students overall r eported greater confidence in performing an examination than in interpretin g the results, confidence varied significantly across specific types of exa minations. Conclusions. Understanding of basic information about common can cers was disappointing. Confidence to perform and interpret examinations co uld be higher, especially for opposite-gender screening examinations. impli cations of the findings for CPACE curriculum development are discussed.