ABSTRACT
Objective:To investigate and analyze the status quo of death cognition and hospice care attitude of clinical medical graduate students, to compare the differences between the two groups, and to explore the correlation between death cognition and hospice care attitude, so as to provide the reference for the reform and construction of death cognition and hospice care education in medical colleges and universities in China.Methods:A survey was carried out on 496 doctoral and postgraduate students majoring in clinical medicine by using the "Questionnaire of General Sociology Survey", the Chinese version of the "Death Attitude Profile Revised Scale", and the Chinese version of the "Frommelt Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying Scale Form B (FATCOD-B)" to investigate the death cognition and hospice care attitude of 496 doctoral and postgraduate students majoring in clinical medicine, and classified and compared the survey results of the two groups. The results of this study were statistically analyzed by t-test, Pearson correlation analysis and other statistical methods. Results:A total of 469 valid questionnaires were recovered after excluding 27 unqualified questionnaires. Statistical analysis showed that the scores of each dimension in the death attitude description scale of doctoral students were ranked as follows: approach acceptance (4.28±0.53), neutral acceptance (3.99±0.41), death avoidance (2.74±0.63), fear of death (2.65±0.57) and escape acceptance (2.47±0.69) the scores of postgraduates were ranked as neutral acceptance (3.96±0.52), approach acceptance (2.84±0.61), fear of death (2.78±0.65), death escape (2.62±0.73), escape acceptance (2.39±0.77). At the same time, the scores of hospice care attitude in the doctoral group were higher than those in the master group [(110.63±8.96) vs. (106.78±6.52)], and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.001). In addition, the scores of "fear of death" and the scores of hospice care attitudes were negatively correlated with the scores of doctoral and master students ( r=-0.25, r=-0.21), while the scores of hospice care attitudes were positively correlated with the scores of "neutral acceptance" in death cognition ( r=0.50, r=0.32). However, the hospice care attitude scores of doctoral students were negatively correlated with the "death avoidance" scores in death cognition ( r=-0.27). Conclusion:Doctoral and postgraduate students have a certain awareness of hospice care, while their death cognition and hospice care attitude still need to be improved and strengthened from sociology, psychology, ethics and other perspectives. The above will promote the harmony between doctors and patients while meeting the needs of an aging society in China.