Professional secrecy: knowledge of medical students and physicians

Abstract Professional secrecy is the basis of trust in the doctor-patient relationship. This is a cross-sectional, quantitative study aiming to describe the knowledge of medical students and physicians about secrecy. Participants included 100 students who had not studied Ethics (Group 1), 113 that had studied Ethics (Group 2) and 127 regional physicians (Group 3), totaling 340 participants. Group 2, composed of students who had taken two Ethics subjects, had more right answers in 9 of the 16 questions, seven with statistical significance, surpassing Group 3, composed of physicians, which had more correct answers in 3 questions, without significance, and Group 1 with more correct answers in two questions, both significant. It is concluded that teaching contributed to increase knowledge about professional secrecy during medical school and that it is necessary to find ways to emphasize the knowledge of this subject among professionals. Aprovação CEP-Unoesc/Hust 1.799.732