[A survey on how medical student consider end-if-life care in the elderly].
We examined the way medical students think about end-of-life care in the elderly by a questionnaire survey. The major variables of the evaluation instrument included the students' idea of the special nature of end-of-life care for the elderly, the necessity for disclosure of the name of disease, consideration for patient's age on disclosure, advance directives concerning their life-sustaining treatment, and communication concerning preferences for end-of-life care. The final items on the instrument asked for student comments about end-of-life care in the elderly. We analyzed this qualitative data using the process of immersion/crystallization. We received 95 responses, and of these 65 (68%) provided written commentaries that were analyzed using qualitative techniques. Fifty-nine (62%) students pointed out the special nature of end-of-life care in the elderly and most of them (96%) needed the disclosure of the name of disease. Fifty-two (55%) students agreed with advance directives for end-of-life care and 88 (93%) students pointed out the importance of communication with regard to patients' preferences. Medical students' concerns about end-of-life care in the elderly related to three major domains: 1) patient-physician relationship; 2) the procedures of end-of-life care; and 3) emotional and intuitive comments. These results suggest that in the education of geriatric medicine the patient-physician's relationship about end-of-life care is important and we may need to introduce systematic lectures and practical training.
Masuda
Y
Y
Department of Geriatrics, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine.
Hattori
A
A
Mogi
N
N
Naito
M
M
Iguchi
A
A
Uemura
K
K
D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005853:Geriatrics / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013727:Terminal Care