Assessing the knowledge, ability and educational needs assessment of medical students and graduates with respect to addiction knowledge: A step towards enhancing the general medical education curriculum in Iran

Addiction is global problem, and general practitioners, as the first line of providing health services, have the most contact with addicted people. However, the needs of a general practitioner in relation to addiction are not met due to deficiencies in the educational curriculum. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the knowledge, ability and needs assessment of physicians and students with respect to addiction. This was a descriptive study conducted in Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences in 2019. The study population included medical interns and physicians working in health service centers who completed a self-assessment questionnaire of knowledge, ability and educational needs assessment with respect to addiction. The results showed that most of the participants in the study considered their knowledge and ability in the field of addiction to be moderate and poor. Educational needs assessment showed that most general practitioners admitted the strong urge to teach addiction topics in general medicine courses. More than 40 percent of the practitioners had a high exposure to patients with substance abuse, and the most important educational need from their point of view was how to deal with these patients. The most common way to obtain information in the field of addiction was to use the experiences of professors. Due to the undeniable role of general practitioners in addiction management and according to the results of needs assessment, it is necessary to modify the general medical education curriculum in accordance with the needs of the stakeholders.