Confirming and notifying death: blended learning acceptability among medical students, a pilot mixed-methods study.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• End-of-Life Care Communication

Background:

• Young doctors face significant practical and emotional challenges with death confirmation and notification.
• Current medical curricula lack specific training for these critical end-of-life communication tasks.
• Limited and late exposure to death during clinical placements hinders preparedness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the perceived acceptability of a specialized training program on death confirmation and notification among final-year medical students.
• To assess the impact of theoretical e-learning and simulation-based training on student preparedness.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods study involving 14 final-year medical students.
• Quantitative data collected via pre- and post-training self-questionnaires.
• Qualitative data gathered through focus groups to explore student experiences and perceptions.

Main Results:

• Significant improvements in self-efficacy and positive reception across all seven components of acceptability were observed.
• Students highlighted the value of combined e-learning and simulation methods.
• Training unexpectedly enhanced interprofessional skills and highlighted deficits in current curriculum regarding interpersonal and emotion management training.

Conclusions:

• The innovative theoretical and practical training is well-received and deemed acceptable by medical students.
• There is a clear need to integrate comprehensive interpersonal and emotion management skills training into the medical school curriculum.
• The study supports enhancing and permanently implementing this training, with future research focusing on its clinical practice impact.