Death education for aspiring physicians, teachers, and funeral directors

Abstract

Abstract This paper reports the results of a 1986 survey designed to explore the amount of death education now being offered in schools of education, medicine, and funeral service. Moreover, practitioners in the fields of education, medicine, and funeral service, surveyed to determine the adequacy of their death education and related topics, indicate few received death education, those who received such education feel it was inadequate, and most feel more death education should be offered. Although most practitioners indicate satisfaction with their own understanding of death, their responses on a death attitude scale show that a statistically significant difference exists among the three occupational groups regarding their attitudes toward death.