Biological and psychosocial risk perception in Medical Students of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana: A cross Sectional study

Occupation exposure is defined as the presence of a substance or risk factor in the work environment, there are several types of them such as physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial. Health workers are exposed in their daily labor to similar occupational risks, World Health Organization recognizes sharp injuries, chemicals, radiation, stress, and violence as the most common hazards in health care, the incidence of occupational accidents varies among regions and hospitals, physicians and nurses are the ones at higher risk, some reports show and incidence of accidents of 34,1 per 1.000 health workers. Risk perception has a key role in how people act and take precautions to minimize risk. This study´s objective was to characterize risk perception in medical students at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, according to their time of exposition in practice. Two questionnaires were adapted to describe risk perception in medical students, the first one was “Escala Diagnóstica de Riesgos Laborales (EDRIL)” which was used to describe occupational risk with variables like depression, burnout, and mobbing, and the second one was Biological Risk Perception questionnaire from Cabos Valdez. The final questionnaire included fifty-one questions and took an approximated time of 5 minutes to complete. Through this questionnaire, we were able to categorize the main risks recognized by students and their management of them.