Toward comprehensive palliative care training: addressing gender and training stage differences in medical education

Palliative care (PC) education is globally recommended; however, many regions lack sufficient training. This study aimed to evaluate medical students' confidence in PC and pain management and to compare confidence levels according to year of training and both male and female genders.

This observational study was conducted at a medical school in northern Jordan. A convenience sample of medical students were asked to fill a survey comprising the Self-Efficacy in Palliative Care Scale (SEPC) and Thanatophobia Scale (TS).

In total, 289 students were enrolled in this study. In their first year of clinical training, 137 were female and 130 were students. In the SEPC, discussing the patient's death with the patient was the domain in which the students were least confident. Confidence in working on a multi-professional PC team was recognized as the highest skill area among the participants. Confidence in students' ability to assess patients' pain needs was identified as the most confident skill, whereas their ability to prescribe appropriate pain control medications was the lowest. There was a significant difference in TS between the female and male medical students.

An integrated pain and PC curriculum in medical schools is essential to help students achieve confidence in pain management and palliative care.