Bereavement: the role of the family physician.

Much has been written regarding attitudes of patients, families, and physicians in managing death and subsequent grief reactions. Here at Howard University College of Medicine, we are constantly aware of our educational responsibility to insure that our students and residents achieve certain levels of awareness, acquire certain basic and specific information, and be afforded an opportunity to ventilate and discuss issues of death, dying, and bereavement as they relate to their current or future encounters with patients and their families. We are specifically interested in the roles and responsibilities of the family physician.