Published 11 August 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1244
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1244

Letters

End of life care

Changing the death taboo for medical students

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

With reference to Riley’s editorial on a strategy for end of life care,1 we explored, as part of a national mixed methods study, what coordinators of undergraduate palliative care teaching are trying to achieve in the medical curriculum. Perhaps not surprisingly, they are aiming to help medical students overcome the same fears held by the lay public about death, dying, and hospices and to convey that the palliative care approach is applicable to many patients and part of any doctor’s role, regardless of specialty.

Medical students’ well documented fears may exist because the focus of care of acute teaching hospitals remains on cure and prolonging life, and invasive procedures, investigations, and treatment2 are often continued at the expense of comfort for the deteriorating patient.3 Healthcare professionals can be reluctant to diagnose dying, and death is often seen as failure.4 However, most healthcare professionals have had little formal training in diagnosing . . . [Full text of this article]

J Gibbins, specialist registrar, palliative medicine1, C Reid, consultant in palliative medicine2, E J Chambers, consultant in palliative medicine3, C Campbell, specialist registrar, palliative medicine1, R McCoubrie, consultant in palliative medicine1, K Forbes, professorial teaching fellow1

1 Department of Palliative Medicine, University of Bristol and University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre, Bristol BS2 8ED, 2 Palliative Care Team, Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, Gloucester GL1 3NN, 3 Southmead Palliative Care Team, Elgar House, Southmead Hospital, Bristol BS10 5NB

janegibbins@hotmail.com


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

A strategy for end of life care in the UK
Julia Riley
BMJ 2008 337: a943. [Extract] [Full Text]

Care of the dying patient: the last hours or days of life • Commentary: a "good death" is possible in the NHS
John Ellershaw, Chris Ward, and Rabbi Julia Neuberger
BMJ 2003 326: 30-34. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ