title: Medical Students Reflections Toward End-of-Life: a Hospice Experience.
abstract: In this study, we want to investigate the personal reflections toward care of the dying cancer patients among second year medical students. Two hundred fifty second year medical students attended an elective short course on end-of-life care and a brief training at the hospice Valletta, in Turin. After group discussion, the students explained their reflections about their experience. Two different supervisors of the study analyzed themes of the students and subdivided them in categories according to the frequency. The most recurrent themes were symptoms, coping skills, distress, hospice, and insight. Each theme is subdivided in categories. In 95 of 250 transcriptions, students talked about symptom (38%), 60 transcriptions (24%) were focused on coping skills. In 45 transcriptions (18%) students described emotional distress, and in the other 30 (12%) transcriptions, they pinpointed hospice philosophy. Finally, 20 recorded data (8%) were characterized by insight theme. These results have emphasized the need to integrate the clinical training with an experiential training that prepares future doctors for dealing with suffering and death. The qualitative analysis of the reflections showed that the students gained a deep appreciation of the human identity of hospice patients and the relevance of a humanistic approach to care as future physicians.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Psychology and Psycho-Oncology Unit, Department of Neurosciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy. abovero@cittadellasalute.to.it.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5728-9907
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bovero
authors.affiliation: Clinical Psychology and Psycho-Oncology Unit, Department of Neurosciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tosi
authors.affiliation: Clinical Psychology and Psycho-Oncology Unit, Department of Neurosciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miniotti
authors.affiliation: Clinical Psychology and Psycho-Oncology Unit, Department of Neurosciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Torta
authors.affiliation: Clinical Psychology and Psycho-Oncology Unit, Department of Neurosciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Leombruni
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001293:Attitude to Death; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Dying patients; End-of-life care; Medical education; Medical students; Reflections