[Dealing with death--a workshop for improved preparedness levels and competence of medical students]

Physicians are needed to deal with death and dying patients on a daily basis. Research has shown that physicians find that this part of their clinical work is conceived of as exceptionally challenging. Numerous educational programs have been developed in order to address this problem. However, these programs have mainly targeted residents rather than medical students, even though experts in the field have advocated their implementation early on in the course of medical training. In response to this, our medical school has developed a focused workshop intended to prepare medical students to form a better understanding of these issues, and to improve their ability to cope with these situations. The current study aimed to assess the willingness of 6th year medical students participating in a workshop entitled "Death and the dying patient" to address these issues and their opinions on the preferred/most effective teaching modalities for these issues. The students completed anonymous questionnaires which evaluated their sense of preparedness and readiness to cope with death and dying patients, before and after the workshop. We have found that there are better and more efficient ways to teach these subjects and this article aims at summarizing these methods.