Medical students' attitudes towards the teaching of cervical and ovarian cancer screening protocols in Ireland: a qualitative study

Background Screening programmes decrease the incidence of colorectal, breast and cervical cancer. As such, it is imperative that medical health professionals are educated on the screening programmes available and are aware of the research basis justifying them. Aims To establish the attitudes of final-year medical students to a gynaecological cancer screening teaching session, provided as part of their core Obstetrics and Gynaecology module. Methods A 3-h workshop, aimed to critically appraise research papers, reviewed cervical and ovarian cancer screening methods. The workshop was facilitated by a Consultant in Gynae-oncology Surgery. Anonymous evaluation was requested from two hundred nine students attending during the 2018/2019 academic year. Qualitative research with thematic analysis of content was performed. Results One hundred fifty-six students gave evaluation on the workshop itself (74.6%). Three main themes were identified-support for the importance of teaching screening methods, appreciation of the importance of understanding cervical screening and a wish for further teaching in Critical Appraisal. Students identified that there was a need to understand screening, that it was "..important for us to consider the value of screening programmes". The teaching on Cervical screening was "..helpful, especially with cervical screening". Conclusions Medical students expressed a wish to understand the research basis of a common clinical screening programme (for cervical cancer) as well as the research basis for not providing screening to low risk populations (for ovarian cancer). Further research in this area may include exploring how this is taught in other medical schools.