Abstract:
The aim of this reseach was to investigate how the subject of death was dealt with in a medical school’s educational program. The methodology was based on qualitative research, and data were collected at the biginning and end of the medical course. Students acknowlegde the physicians’ relevant role in the process of death in terminal patients, but also recognized that they fail to receive any specific training for this role. At the end of the medical course, a change of focus was observed in the students’ attention, where the patients’ Family rather than the patients themselves became the main focus. Another change was the students’ preception that situations that were considered preferential for teaching issues related do death were no longer those related to interactions with terminal patients, but were focused on settings within the hospital and thus required technical hospital trainig. The article concludes that such results reflect ways of adjusting to reality: sice during their training the students do not have their exectations met concerning specific training for dealing with terminal patients, they seek to assimilate instruction concerninf the role of maintaining human life within the hospiatl-care model from the perspective of recognizing death as a technically ordered process.
Key-words:
Death; Education, Medical