Caregiving Education by Medical Students: Are They Prepared to Shoulder Education of the Caregivers?

The study aims to evaluate the final year medical students’ preparedness in providing caregiving information to the future caregivers. A cross-sectional study was completed among the final year medical undergraduate at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Kubang Kerian. Students have been exposed to various community, rehabilitative and palliative care programmes. The purposive sampling method was used, using modified Preparedness for Caregiver Scale (PCS) as the tool in January 2019. A total of 126 students agreed to participate but only 125 have completed the questionnaire given with the response rate of 99.2%. Four students were excluded. This was supported by 30%–50% (scale 3 and 4) of the items in the PCS questionnaire were answered by the participated medical students, indicating their readiness towards caregiving education. Our study showed that senior medical students were adequately prepared to work as caregivers in the community. Caregiving skills exposure are important in strengthening students’ learning and readiness in disseminating knowledge to other caregivers.