A Survey of Newly Enrolled Medical Students and New Students of Other Faculties on the Sensitivity to Human Death and Dying / 医学教育

A questionnaire survey of newly enrolled medical students on the sensitivity to human death and dying was conducted at Yamaguchi University in June 1997 and June 1998. The survey was performed during lectures of an elective liberal arts course in medical ethics for first-year students. Responses were received from 415 students, including 63 medical students. Answers from new medical students were compared with those from new students of other faculties. Our results show that our medical school entrance examination does not generally select students with a high motivation for bioethics. We should consider further improvement in the curriculum of the introduction to medicine (igakugairon in Japanese).