Teaching Palliative Care to Health Professional Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Palliative Care
• Health Professions

Background:

• End-of-life care presents significant mental and emotional challenges for health professionals.
• Palliative care education can aid health professional students in managing these challenges.
• Students report a need for enhanced preparation in palliative care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To gather and synthesize information on teaching palliative care to health professional students.
• To identify effective educational strategies for palliative care.

Main Methods:

• A systematic literature search was conducted across multiple databases (Medline, PsycINFO, etc.) up to April 2019.
• Included randomized controlled trials focused on group interventions to enhance students' palliative care knowledge, skills, or attitudes.
• Data were synthesized using meta-analysis, and studies were appraised using the PEDro scale.

Main Results:

• Interventions significantly improved knowledge and attitudes, but not skills.
• A 2-hour seminar with readings appeared sufficient for enhancing knowledge and attitudes.
• Excluding studies with high risk of bias revealed significant improvements only in knowledge, highlighting methodological limitations in many trials.

Conclusions:

• Palliative care education effectively enhances students' knowledge and attitudes.
• Further research is essential to develop effective palliative care skill development strategies.
• High-quality trials are needed to determine optimal palliative care educational approaches.