A perspective of end-of-life care education in undergraduate medical and nursing students in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

BACKGROUND

The goals of this study were to evaluate: (1) the experiences and attitudes after exposure to dying patients in undergraduate medicine and nursing students with lack of training in end-of-life care issues; (2) whether or not exposure to terminally ill patients (TIPs) influences attitudes in students who had no training in end-of-life care; (3) students wishes regarding their future care of TIPs; and (4) if medicine and nursing students are indeed interested in receiving training in end-of-life care.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A survey was administered to students in the first and last year in schools of medicine and nursing, comprising seven universities in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and surrounding areas. Data were collected during the 2005 to 2010 time period. Data from 730 students were analyzed.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

We found that nursing and medical undergraduate students at nursing and medicine schools in the city of Buenos Aires and surrounding areas: (a) come in direct contact with TIPs and perceive their suffering; and (b) have a highly positive attitude toward these patients, even though some of them referred to that relationship as arduous and in some cases they tended to avoid emotional involvement because they did not feel well trained. We also found that (c) this wish for avoidance was increased in final-year medical and nursing students who had been exposed to a higher number of TIPs; and (d) students unanimously manifested the opinion that the teaching about caring of TIPs should be included in the curricula and they would be well disposed to receive it. For all these reasons, we consider that the teaching of caregiving to TIPs in the academic degree programs of nursing and medicine should not be presented as a marginal issue.