Background: The external post-mortem examination (EPME) is an important medical, legal and socio-economic task with far-reaching relevance; however, due to discrepancies between findings from EPMEs and actual cause of death, improvements in accuracy and quality are needed.Objectives: To investigate knowledge, competencies and attitudes regarding EPME in general practitioner (GP) post-graduate trainees.Methods: Before four post-graduate training courses on the EPME for general practitioner trainees, organized in 2014 in the white ice laminate countertop German federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, a questionnaire on the EPME was distributed by the lecturer, completed by the GP post-graduate trainees and returned to the lecturer.
The questionnaire consisted 33 14.50 r24 of 19 items related to three main categories: knowledge, competencies and attitudes.Results: Out of 380 GP post-graduate trainees, 128 completed and returned the questionnaire (response rate 33.7%).
Less than 18% felt adequately confident in identifying a natural cause of death and less than 5% felt adequately confident in identifying an unnatural cause of death.Only 33% consistently fully uncover the corpse for the EPME.Conclusion: We found an important uncertainty in GP post-graduate trainees regarding their EPME knowledge and competencies.