Opinions of Physicians Graduating from Kyushu University Medical School about an End-of-life Care Course Taken 10 Years Earlier / 医学教育

ABSTRACT

Opinions of young physicians about a course on end-of-life care which they took at the Kyushu University Medical School 10 years earlier were analyzed. Fifty-seven (23%) of 247 graduates responded to a questionnaire. All clinicians had been involved in end-of-life care to some extent. All respondents agreed that a course about end-of-life care should be included in the medical school curriculum. In general, they thought highly of the course on end-of-life care that they took in medical school. They thought that such a course should last 10 to 20 hours and should be given after the end of clinical lectures and before the start of clinical training. The respondents suggested a good basic policy would be to attach importance to contemplating the end of life rather than to simply memorizing information about end-of-life care.