Introduction: The questionnaire based study was carried out with the objective to know the
present knowledge of students regarding autopsy, attitude towards autopsy and probability of
choosing forensic medicine as a career which can enable to find out ways to make autopsy an
enriching academic exercise and further increase the acceptability of our subject.
Methodology: A questionnaire based cross-sectional study, was carried out among the 2nd
year medical students at IMS and Sum Hospital, Bhubaneswar. The first part of questionnaire
comprised of items in form of simple statements for which response recorded dichotomously
as true or false. The first nine statements were on knowledge component and second nine items
were on attitude of the students. The second part of questionnaire comprised of eight items
which contained the eight reasons for forensic medicine of not choosing forensic medicine as
career.
Results: A majority of students were found to have reasonable knowledge of the basic autopsy
procedure. 88% of the students were of the opinion that autopsy has utility in medical education.
68% of the students were confident of independently performing an autopsy. 88% of students
proactively searched for information on autopsy. However only 11.54% students reported that
they plan to pursue a career in Forensic Medicine.