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Death education as perceived by medical students and internal medicine specialists: A qualitative study
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of the death education that medical students received with that received by internal medicine specialists. The effect of death education on the internists' professional and personal lives was also explored. Descriptive data was obtained through the use of a structured questionnaire, constructed by the researcher and administered during personal interviews. A selected sample of 10 third- and fourth-year Midwestern medical school students (three women and seven men) and a random sample of 10 internal medicine specialists (one woman and nine men) from a mid-sized and a small Midwestern city were used. All of the students and nine internists stated that death education was needed in medical school. Seven students and nine doctors believed that this training should be required. Nine students had received training in thanatology, and seven indicated that they would seek out further death education. Eight students and nine doctors believed the topic of death should be incorporated within other medical school courses. In addition, three physicians and five students believed that a separate course, seminars, and workshops should also be offered. The internists who had not received death education in medical school indicated that this training could have provided them with academic knowledge and eliminated trial-and-error methods when caring for the dying patient and the family. This training may have been helpful during the early years of practice. However, three internal medicine specialists indicated that they did not know how death education would have affected their professional and personal lives. The data supported that the internal medicine specialists perceived their death education as inadequate and that the doctors believed that thanatology should be required in medical school. On the other hand, the results did not support that the medical students perceived their death education offerings as sufficient to prepare them for practice. The internists who had received some death education in medical school also indicated that such training had little impact upon their professional and personal lives.
Subject Area
Surgery|Health education
Recommended Citation
McReynolds, Janis Gay, "Death education as perceived by medical students and internal medicine specialists: A qualitative study" (1993). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9322805.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9322805