(265) Perception of palliative care among medical students in a teaching hospital

Abstract

Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness. Palliative care must be the part of every medical personnel's practice. But still medical education curriculums have not included palliative care in its syllabus, sufficiently due to which must of the health professional are not aware about this specialty. The propose of this study is to find out the perception of medical students in palliative care in a teaching hospital.A descriptive study was done among 270 undergraduate medical students studying in Institute of Medicine (IOM) using a self-structured pretested questionnaire. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel and analysed by using SPSS 21. Of the total 270 undergraduate medical students, only 152 has heard the word "palliative care". The perception of palliative care is 6.11%, 8.2%, 42.35%, 64.42%, 50.75% respectively from first year to final year. 210 (77.78%) don't know if palliative care is included in curriculum of IOM. However 227 are interested to learn about palliative care if they got any opportunity. The perception of palliative care is low in first couple of year of medical study. It is increased in clinically exposed students but is surprisingly more in fourth year than final year undergraduate medical students. However, it should be included in undergraduate medical study. Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness. Palliative care must be the part of every medical personnel's practice. But still medical education curriculums have not included palliative care in its syllabus, sufficiently due to which must of the health professional are not aware about this specialty. The propose of this study is to find out the perception of medical students in palliative care in a teaching hospital.A descriptive study was done among 270 undergraduate medical students studying in Institute of Medicine (IOM) using a self-structured pretested questionnaire. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel and analysed by using SPSS 21. Of the total 270 undergraduate medical students, only 152 has heard the word "palliative care". The perception of palliative care is 6.11%, 8.2%, 42.35%, 64.42%, 50.75% respectively from first year to final year. 210 (77.78%) don't know if palliative care is included in curriculum of IOM. However 227 are interested to learn about palliative care if they got any opportunity. The perception of palliative care is low in first couple of year of medical study. It is increased in clinically exposed students but is surprisingly more in fourth year than final year undergraduate medical students. However, it should be included in undergraduate medical study.