title: [The knowledge, involvement and feelings of students graduating in medicine, nursing and psychology about orthothanasia].
abstract: Orthothanasia involves the suspension of medical procedures for terminal phase patients, which leads to a natural death, relieving the symptoms that cause suffering. In this process, professionals such as physicians, nurses and psychologists, interact with patients and their families. Therefore, it is desirable that during undergraduate studies these professionals should take subjects geared to handle this aspect. The scope of this qualitative study was to evaluate the awareness with respect to orthothanasia of undergraduates in medicine, nursing and psychology courses in a university. Trigger questions in semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 students. The interviews were recorded and transcribed for content analysis and core identification themes. Three categories were identified: knowledge about orthothanasia; who should be involved in this process; and feelings experienced when facing death. The data revealed that students have scant knowledge about the subject, consider the family involvement in the orthothanasia decision to be important and they do not feel prepared to deal with death situations. The conclusion points to the need to change the focus on the end-of-life issue in the undergraduate courses in the area of health care in order to prepare the future professional adequately.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psicologia, Universidade São Francisco, R. Alexandre Rodrigues Barbosa 45, 13.251-900 Itatiba SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Luís Roberto Gonçalves
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: dos Santos
authors.forename: Mariana Pires
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Menezes
authors.forename: Silvia Mayumi Obana
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Gradvohl
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011584:Psychology; D013336:Students, Health Occupations / Q000523:psychology*; D013337:Students, Medical; D013338:Students, Nursing; D028761:Withholding Treatment