查看文章

Purpose

To explore third-year medical students’ experiences with death and dying patients during the first internal medicine clerkship.

Method

In August 2002, through purposeful sampling, the authors targeted for open-ended interviews 32 third-year medical students at the University of California, San Francisco in the first core internal medicine clerkship. Interviews averaged 45 minutes in length and were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using a grounded theory approach.

Results

Twenty-eight (87.5%) students participated in interviews. All students encountered death or dying patients, and most cared directly for at least one dying patient. Students’ relationships with patients were characterized by attachment, empathy, and advocacy. Students valued preparation by preclinical end-of-life (EOL) courses, but assigned greater value to patient care experiences guided by teams that acknowledged deaths, role …