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Palliative Medicine
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research-article

Effect of end of life education on medical students’ and health care workers’ death attitude

K Hegedus

Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest

Á Zana

Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest

G Szabó

Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest

One of the goals of education in end of life care is to make communication more open by exploring critical issues related to fear of dying and death in order to reduce anxiety and improve an individual’s attitude to dying patients. The aim of our research was to evaluate the effects of courses for health care workers and medical students in care at the end of life. One hundred and twenty-seven health care professionals and 41 undergraduate medical students completed the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale (MFODS) on the first and last day of the course. The most significant factors of fear of death are: Fear for Significant Others, Fear of the Dying Process and Fear of the Unknown. Overall fear of death scores were reduced as an effect of the courses. Changes in the components and level of fear of death are influenced by the participants’ gender, age and profession. Improvement was evident in the attitudes to dying patients in both groups, which was related to an increase in knowledge of high-quality care of dying patients.

Key Words: death • fear of death • death attitude • education • health care workers • medical students

Palliative Medicine, Vol. 22, No. 3, 264-269 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0269216307086520
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