OBJECTIVE: The aim of this investigation was to study the feelings and attitudes of medical students, medical doctors and teachers of medicine facing death and terminal patients. METHOD: An inquiry about death and terminal patient was applied to 81 pre-clinical students, 139 clinical students, 52 medical doctors and 54 teachers of the Faculty of Health Sciences. RESULTS: 303 responders showed interest in this subject (93%); 179 had problems in dealing with it (55%). Only 136 searched for information (41.7%) and 116 have dificulty in finding it (85.1%). Non-especialized sources of information were the most used ones (61.1%). Twenty medical doctors (38%) and 13 teachers (24%) discussed the subject more often with patients, 47 pre-clinical students (58%) did it with friends and 40 with relatives (49.4%); 36 teachers did it with health professionals (66.6%). 263 responders rarely think about their own death (80.7%), and 38 do it constantly (11.6%); 157 are afraid of thinking about their own death (52.2%). Eleven pre-clinical students (13.8%), ten clinical students (7.2%) and 4 medical doctors (7.4%) never thought of their own death. Before entering medical school, 136 responders had some kind of contact with corpses (41.8%). The interest about death did not change, after dealing with corpses in anatomy classes, to 321 responders (98.5%), the same hapening with 236 individuals (96.3%) after necroscopy. During the clinical year 111 students (79.9%) worked with terminal patients. CONCLUSIONS: The authors suggest that formal education about death and terminal patient in medical schools, starting early in the medical course, as well as permanent attention to the theme by professionals, could modify the attitudes of students and medical doctors toward a better way in dealing with this subject.
Terminal patient; Death; Medical education
