ABSTRACT
Objective: The aim of this study is to test, through university students in Lebanon, the attitudes in our society towards death, the end of life and their knowledge about palliative care
Method: The transversal, descriptive and comparative study was conducted between March and April 2015 among students divided into 2 groups: medical students in the 2[nd] cycle of medical studies [Group 1], university students in other faculties [Group 2]. The questionnaire included 17 questions distributed under three headlines: death as experienced, the end of life and palliative care
Results: We collected 145 responses with a 72% response rate for medical students and 73% for students from other faculties. More than half of students have experienced the death of a close relative but medical students were more frequently confronted with such a situation [72% vs 56%; p = 0.033] occurring often in hospital [43% vs 20%; p = 0.011]. 65% of students believe that our society refuses to face death and does not even allow us to choose where to die. The conditions for a "good death" were mainly represented by an appropriate management of pain, to die in the minimum of pain [55%]. 65% of students hoped for a better management of end of life, mainly through 3 ways: palliative care units [40%], palliative care at home [34%] and the development of pain management in hospitals [34%]. 81% of students had heard of palliative care units, their primary expectation from these units was pain relief [63%] followed by human accompaniment [43%] and personalized comfort care [43%]. For the future of palliative care, the main efforts are to support the establishment of a financial aid system for the person in the end of life [50% of students], the implementation of an ambitious policy to the development of palliative care units [43%] and training health professionals to care for and support in their daily practice terminally ill patients [27%]
Conclusion: In our society, there is a crisis facing the process of dying and we have difficulty in managing satisfactorily the terminal phase of existence. To improve care at the end of life, it is important to create palliative care services in hospitals and improve the care of these patients at home