title: Will a course on death and dying lower students' death and dying anxiety?
abstract: This course describes a 7-week, one-and-one-half-hour per week course on Death and Dying and examines its impact on medical students' attitudes. The 30 participants were tested on attitudes about death and dying pre- and post-course. The pre- and post-course fears about death and dying were measured with the 32-item Collett-Lester Death Anxiety Scale, which measures fear of death and the dying process as these apply to self and others. The Semantic Differential technique was used to measure the pre- and post-course attitudes toward "treating the dying patient" and "dealing with the dying patient's family." There was a decrease in anxiety about death and dying when the posttest was compared with the pretest on the anxiety scales, with death of self and death of others reaching significance (p = .04 and .04). There was a decrease in anxiety scores on the Semantic Differential on treating the dying patient and dealing with the dying patient's family (p = less than .001 for both).
authors.affiliation: Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19129.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Kaye
mesh_terms: D001293:Attitude to Death; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*