Knowledge and perception of family medicine among medical students at University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Background: Postgraduate training in Family Medicine in Nigeria began over three decades ago, but it was not until recently that the National University Commission (NUC) made it a policy for all Nigerian universities to include undergraduate Family Medicine training in their curriculum. This study aimed to assess the awareness and perception of Family Medicine among medical students at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of four weeks (June 11­July 6, 2018) among 131 fourth-year, 118 fifth-year and 163 sixth-year medical students at UCH, Ibadan. Data were obtained using a self-administered questionnaire. Results: Data were collected from 309 (75% of the target population). The mean age of the respondents was 22.3 ± 2.3 years. The majority (74.4%) did not have a family member who was a doctor and only 2.3% had a family member who was specialising in Family Medicine. Most of the participants (68.9%) had good knowledge of Family Medicine, while 57.3% had good perception of Family Medicine as a specialty. Importantly, an increase in year of clerkship was associated with an increase in the knowledge of Family Medicine among the respondents. Conclusion: It was observed that with increase in length of exposure to Family Medicine as a specialty, knowledge and perception of the specialty improved among the medical students. It is imperative that all the medical schools in Nigeria implement the NUC directive and start undergraduate Family Medicine training

Foreign body ingestions in a schizophrenic patient

The topic of foreign body ingestion has received extensive coverage in the areas of surgery; emergency medicine and pediatrics. A subset of this topic; the intentional ingestion of foreign bodies; however; is much less common; and involves subtleties in evaluation and management not usually seen in accidental ingestions. Here; we report a case of ingestion of a rolled; metal tuna can lid in a male prison inmate previously diagnosed with depression and paranoid schizophrenia. Following evaluation by the surgical team; the foreign body was removed by laparotomy and the patient was discharged back to the prison without complication. In many cases; ingestions of this type involve a command hallucination ordering the patient to swallow the foreign body. Interestingly; the patient in the present case reported auditory hallucinations commanding him not to swallow the can lid