Attitudes of preclinical medical students towards caring for chronically ill and dying patients: does palliative care teaching make a difference?
BACKGROUND
Students entering medical school today will encounter an ageing population and a higher incidence of diseases affecting the elderly-for example, chronic respiratory and cardiac disease and malignancy.


OBJECTIVE
This study was carried out to determine the attitudes of preclinical medical students towards the care of patients for whom a cure is not possible.


METHODS
All students were invited to complete a 23 item questionnaire prior to initial teaching and again following the second teaching session in palliative care.


RESULTS
Overall, 149 of the 186 students (80%) completed the pre-teaching questionnaire (59 males and 90 females; median age 20 years, range 19-27 years), and 66 students (35%) completed the post-teaching questionnaire. Attitudes towards chronically ill and dying patients were generally positive. It was found that increasing age was associated with a more positive view of caring for patients with chronic or terminal illness, a more positive view of listening to patients reminisce, and a more positive view of patients dying at home (p = 0.014). The only notable result was that after palliative care teaching students had a significantly more positive view of hospices.


CONCLUSIONS
Caring for patients at the end of life can be one of the most rewarding aspects of being a doctor. This study suggests that the majority of medical students have a positive attitude towards patients with chronic incurable illness, and the trend for encouraging older students to enter medicine may be an influencing factor.
Lloyd-Williams
M
M
Department of Primary Care, University of Liverpool Medical School, Liverpool, UK. mlw@liv.ac.uk
Dogra
N
N
D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010166:Palliative Care; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012737:Sex Factors; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000523:psychology*