Knowledge and awareness of skin donation in medical students: Overcoming the barriers.

Sir,

The importance of skin banks in the management of burns cannot be overemphasised. Unfortunately awareness about skin donation is low. We conducted a study to understand the level of awareness about skin donation in medical students. A well-structured pre-test questionnaire [Table 1], information leaflet [Table 2] and then a post-test questionnaire on the knowledge of skin donation was administered to 150 final year medical students and responses elicited. Although the evaluation demonstrated significant improvement in knowledge (P < 0.0001) after the post-test questionnaire, it is important to know that the preliminary knowledge regarding skin donation of these students was very poor.

Table 1

Skin donation awareness Questionnaire

Table 2

Skin donation awareness

As per Medical Council of India (MCI) data,[2] there are 355 Medical colleges in India training MBBS course, and every year about 44,250 medical graduates pass out of these institutes. If these students are adequately and appropriately informed regarding skin donation, we can have a huge community of individuals who can be facilitators of change and promote awareness on skin donation.

These medicos can council the relatives of the hospital deaths regarding skin donation. They can also disseminate the knowledge and promote awareness of skin donation in the general public. We tried our bit to change the current scenario.

As per our literature search, skin donation in specific and organ donation in general does not form a part of any of the popular reference books used by the undergraduates.

We mailed authors and publishers of anatomy and surgery books the abstract of our study, and stressed upon them the alarming scenario of burns as a national and global health problem. They were requested to add information regarding skin donation at the relevant places in these books. Assistance was solicited from anatomy departments to interact with the undergraduates regarding skin donation.

Posters on skin donation were designed to be displayed at strategic locations like anatomy dissection halls in various medical colleges [Figure 1].

Figure 1

Skin donation awareness poster for medicos

We wrote to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences and the Medical council of India to request them to include organ donation in general and skin donation in specific as a part of the undergraduate curriculum. Both the Medical council and the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences responded very positively, and we are very optimistic of positive outcomes in the times to come.

Although this study was undertaken at a Medical college and tertiary care center in Maharashtra, we believe that the results obtained would be similar across most centers in the country and globally. The medical graduates needs to be sensitised towards skin donation. An attempt must be made by all of us to include in the undergraduate training topics on skin banks and skin donation.[2] Collective efforts would go a long way to address this important issue.

With a minuscule number of skin banks available to cater the needs of our mammoth population; only awareness of skin donation won’t possibly solve the problem. Infrastructure up gradation and awareness creation must go hand in hand to create a measurable impact.