Breastfeeding knowledge among medical and nurse students (Salvador, Bahia)

Abstract

Even with all the described benefits of breastfeeding, we still observe that this practice is not the ideal all over the world, fact that leads more importance to the medical and nurse professionals about the adequate knowledge.Compare the knowledge about breastfeeding among medical and nurse students, in the beginning and final of the graduate course, 88 from the beginning and 85 from the end of the courses. Afterwards the questionnaire was stratificated  in eight blocks of questions, and each one has received a score according the number of questions. It hasn´t found statistical differences between the score averages of students from the beginning of the courses, but it was noted a significant difference between the knowledge in the end of both courses. The Medicine students presented at the end of course an averages rank higher than those of nursing students. There is an improvement of knowledge about breastfeeding in both graduate courses, but the differences need more investigation.