Objective: This paper aims to determine the knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of 3rd year medical students towards violence against women. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional survey was conducted among 224 third year medical students of 3 medical schools in Metro Manila using the pre-tested and validated Knowledge, Attitudes & Perceptions Towards Violence Against Women (KAP- VAW) questionnaire for health professionals. Results: Only the more obvious physical signs of injury were associated with the more readily identifiable forms of abuse- physical and sexual- while subjective somatic complaints, mental and psychological signs and symptoms were less likely associated with VAW. Verbal and economic abuse were hardly known forms of abuse. The more commonly perceived reason for a woman to remain in an abusive relationship was due to her emotional dependence, while a variety of negative characteristics were enumerated to explain the abusive husbands behavior- egotism, sadism, insecurity and jealousy. Despite the fact that almost all the students (99.2 percent) expressed a positive attitude towards the abused woman, only 24.8 percent felt they were ready to actually handle such cases. Conclusion: Although medical students were aware of the impact of violence against women and seemed eager to learn more while in medical school, there was some hesitancy in actually managing such cases as they felt they didnt know enough, thus it is highly recommended that the medical curriculum include training modules on wife abuse.
Human ; Male ; Female ; VIOLENCE ; SPOUSE ABUSE ; PERCEPTION ; ATTITUDE ; STUDENTS, MEDICAL

OBJECTIVE: To develop, teach and evaluate a training workshop that could rapidly prepare large numbers of health professionals working in hospitals in the Philippines to detect and safely manage Ebola virus disease (EVD). The strategy was to train teams (each usually with five members) of key health professionals from public, private and local government hospitals across the Philippines who could then guide Ebola preparedness in their hospitals. METHODS: The workshop was developed collaboratively by the Philippine Department of Health and the country office of the World Health Organization. It was evaluated using a pre- and post-workshop test and two evaluation forms. Chi-square tests and linear regression analyses were conducted comparing pre- and post-workshop test results. RESULTS: A three-day workshop was developed and used to train 364 doctors, nurses and medical technologists from 78 hospitals across the Philippines in three initial batches. Knowledge about EVD increased significantly (P < 0.009) although knowledge on transmission remained suboptimal. Confidence in managing EVD increased significantly (P = 0.018) with 96% of participants feeling more prepared to safely manage EVD cases. DISCUSSION: The three-day workshop to prepare hospital staff for EVD was effective at increasing the level of knowledge about EVD and the level of confidence in managing EVD safely. This workshop could be adapted for use as baseline training in EVD in other developing countries to prepare large numbers of hospital staff to rapidly detect, isolate and safely manage EVD cases.