Effect of a 1‐Week Clinical Rotation in Palliative Medicine on Medical School Graduates' Knowledge of and Preparedness in Caring for Seriously Ill Patients

Abstract

Graduating medical students who had a 1-week clinical rotation in palliative medicine had higher self-assessed skills in pain management and communication than students who received no clinical exposure. A brief clinical experience in palliative care should be considered for integration into the curriculum at all medical schools.

Junior Doctors’ Views of How Their Undergraduate Clinical Electives in Palliative Care Influenced Their Current Practice of Medicine

“…Similarly, our findings are comparable to shortterm findings from studies about the impact of palliative care education. [8][9][10][11][12][13] It could be argued that participants may have had difficulties recalling specific aspects of their palliative care training, as some of them had graduated over five years before the interviews. However, as the interviews were about their experiences and perceptions as they recalled them, this aspect should not hinder the integrity and relevance of the results.…”

“…Consequently, questions were refined as participants were interviewed. The main areas to be discussed during the interviews were chosen on the basis of existing literature [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] and drew upon the most memorable aspects of the palliative care attachments, the initial experiences with the death of a patient (as students and as junior doctors), perceived differences with peers who did not undertake palliative care attachments, and the usefulness and value of the skills learned during the attachment as practicing junior doctors. The interviews were specifically focused on the palliative care attachments in years 4, 5, or 6 and on what was learned in those attachments that the participants believed was important to them as junior doctors.…”

“…6,7,11 Studies report that students learn about the value of hospice care, the value of empathy, the value of the doctor-patient relationship, 12 and what it means to be a doctor 13 ; acknowledge a difference between resignation and acceptance; and start to understand death as a natural event. 8 Furthermore, students describe feeling more support and having a richer experience of role modeling after training in palliative care.…”

“…5 Many training initiatives have been implemented at different points throughout undergraduate medical training. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] These have included 20-hour mandatory coursework sessions 7 ; 1-day visits to a hospice 8 ; 16 hours in a community hospice 9 ; a 4-day curriculum 6,10 ; and 1 week, 2 weeks, or 3 weeks of palliative care attachments (i.e., clinical electives) during the clinical years. [11][12][13] However, there is little information available to guide medical educators in how to best incorporate the teaching of palliative care into medical curricula.…”

An Important But Stressful Part of Their Future Work: Medical Students' Attitudes to Palliative Care Throughout Their Course

“…6,7 Medical students find it stressful dealing with terminally ill patients and coping when breaking bad news and encountering relatives' grief. 8 Students value education in PC, particularly clinical experience with patients and their families, 9,10 although teaching faculty find this challenging to arrange. 11 Recent years have seen an increasing emphasis on including PC in undergraduate curricula, both in policy 12 and practice.…”