Palliative care education in the undergraduate medical curricula: students’ views on the importance of, their confidence in, and knowledge of palliative care

Abstract

Background The need for palliative care is increasing. Since almost every junior doctor will come across palliative care patients, it is important to include palliative care in the undergraduate curriculum. The objective of this research is to gather undergraduate students’ views on palliative care in terms of its importance, their confidence in and knowledge of the domain. Methods Final-year medical students at four Dutch medical faculties were surveyed. The questionnaire measured their views on the education they had received, their self-reported confidence in dealing with palliative care patients and their knowledge of palliative care. Results Two hundred twenty-two medical students participated in this study. Students considered palliative care education relevant, especially training in patient-oriented care and communication with the patient. Students felt that several topics were inadequately covered in the curriculum. Overall, the students did not feel confident in providing palliative care (59.6%), especially in dealing with the spiritual aspect of palliative care (77%). The knowledge test shows that only 48% of the students answered more than half of the questions correctly. Conclusion The students in this study are nearly junior doctors who will soon have to care for palliative patients. Although they think that palliative care is important, in their opinion the curriculum did not cover many important aspects, a perception that is also in line with their lack of confidence and knowledge in this domain. Therefore, it is important to improve palliative care education in the medical curriculum.

Medical student confidence in care of the dying and their family: a systematic review

“…The majority of studies (n=4) were from the UK,19–22 with the remainder published in Germany (n=3),23–25 Australia, (n=2)26 27 USA (n=2),28 29 India (n=1),30 The Netherlands (n=1)31and New Zealand (n=1),32 with a collaborative study between the UK and USA (n=1) 33. Publication year ranged from 1993 to 2019.…”

“…Eight studies included data pertaining to student characteristics, however, there was a lack of consistency between studies in terms of how characteristics were reported. With studies reporting gender identity characteristics (n=7), all reported a greater proportion of female participants (range 50%–74%) 21 22 25 28 29 31 33. Only five studies recorded participant age, with the the most common age range being 20–30 years old 22 25 29 31 33…”

“…Eight studies included fifth/final year students 19 20 23 24 26 30 31 33. One study reported on students within years 3–6 inclusive,32 with the remaining six studies including either second, third or fourth years 21 22 25 27–29…”

Knowledge in Pain and Palliative Care in Medical Students From 2 Universities in Mozambique: A Cross Sectional Study

“…Students from others studies lack PC´s knowledge , especially on the pain and symptom control aspects (14). However, an integrated PC curriculum leads to improved knowledge (23) and physicians with palliative medicine education make less aggressive decisions in end-of-life care, as to withdraw lifeprolonging therapies (24).…”

A National, Palliative Care Competency Framework for Undergraduate Medical Curricula

“…This study focused on the Netherlands as one of the European countries where palliative care [9], albeit marked as general care, still receives very limited attention in medical curricula. In a previous study [10], Dutch final-year medical students reported that their curricula, indeed, did not adequately cover many of the palliative care aspects they deemed important. This finding ties in with studies from different countries showing that students lack knowledge and confidence in caring for patients requiring palliative care [11][12][13][14].…”