Attitudes of medical students in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, toward preventive medicine and epidemiology

Medical students in Belgrade were interviewed regarding their opinions about the teaching of preventive medicine, with particular emphasis on epidemiology, at the beginning and at the end of the course. Results indicated that the course provoked no interest whatsoever in the disciplines of preventive medicine. A part of social factors influencing the motivation of students, the didactic approach to teaching and the strict division between preventive and clinical medicine were implicated as the main reasons for this lack of enthusiasm. The absence in this country of clear and generally accepted ideas regarding what a graduate student should know in order to meet optimally the health needs of the community has been assessed as the factor which obscures definition of the aims of teaching and, accordingly, the creation of purposeful syllabuses.