Attitudes of medical residents toward the dying patient in a general hospital.

Abstract

This report examines the reactions of 120 medical residents to terminal illness. It also explores their own feelings about death and their frustration when faced with a dying patient: “If I cannot cure, what is there left for me to do?” It is recommended that the problems of management of the dying patient be given special attention in the senior year of medical school. The ability to recognize his own psychologic feelings about death helps the young physician to be a better doctor.