Research Article
A Pilot Study on Undergraduate Palliative Care Education A Study on Changes in Knowledge, Attitudes and Self-Perception
Karger A1, Scherg A2*, Schmitz A2, Wenzel-Meyburg U2, Raski B1, Vogt H2, Schatte G2, Schatz M2, Schnell MW3and Schulz C1,21University Dusseldorf, Medical Faculty, Institute for Psychosomatic Medicine, Dusseldorf, Germany
2University Dusseldorf, Medical Faculty, Interdisciplinary Centre for Palliative Medicine, Dusseldorf, Germany
3Institute for Ethics and Medical Communication (IEKG), Witten/Herdecke University, Germany
- *Corresponding Author:
- Alexandra Scherg, PhD
University Hospital Dusseldorf
Interdisciplinary Centre for Palliative Medicine
Moorenstraße 5, Dusseldorf
40225, Germany
Tel: +49 211 8108696
E-mail: alexandra.scherg@med.uni-duesseldorf.de
Received date: January 11, 2015 Accepted date: November 04, 2015 Published date: November 07, 2015
Citation:Karger A, Scherg A, Schmitz A, Wenzel-Meyburg U, Raski B, et al. (2015) A Pilot Study on Undergraduate Palliative Care Education–A Study on Changes in Knowledge, Attitudes and Self-Perception. J Palliat Care Med 5: 236. doi:10.4172/2165-7386.1000236
Copyright: © 2015 Karger A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background: Since 2013 medical faculties in Germany have to teach and assess palliative care issues. Objective: Evaluation of a one-week intensive seminar in palliative care with regard to cognitive and affective learning objectives. Methods: Exploratory prospective naturalistic study with pre (T1) and post (T2) measurement, investigating medical students' (N=31) knowledge, opinions and attitudes as well as estimation in self-efficacy regarding palliative care issues. The sample contains of undergraduate medical students before and after an interdisciplinary palliative care course (40 teaching units) held at the Medical Faculty of Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf, Germany. Results: Upon completion of the seminar, students demonstrated a significant increase of palliative care-related knowledge and a positive self-estimation in competence and self-efficacy with regard to treating and caring for dying patients. However, no changes were found on the subject of a greater acceptance and reduced fear of death and dying. Conclusions: The acquisition of affective learning objectives with regard to essential attitudes towards death and dying may require a longer learning process and thus a longitudinal implementation into medical school curricula.
