This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Yacht, A. C. Articles by Orlander, J. D. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Yacht, A. C. Articles by Orlander, J. D. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Evaluating an End-of-Life Curriculum in a Medical Residency Program

Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York

Shakira Franco Suglia, ScD

Harvard School of Public Health, Baston, Massachusetts

Jay D. Orlander, MD, MPH

Section of General Internal Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology; VA Boston Health Care System, 111-MAV, 150 S Huntington Ave, Jamaica Plane, MA 02130; Jay.Orlander{at}med.va.gov

The ability to meet patient needs at the end of life is important. Boston University Residency Program in Medicine initiated a 1-week-long end-of-life curriculum that included a hospice care orientation, core articles, and home hospice visits. Evaluated was the impact of the rotation on participant knowledge and attitude. Knowledge was assessed by pretest and posttest questionnaires and compared with more senior resident controls, naïve to the curriculum. Attitudes toward issues relating to end-of-life care and subjective change in knowledge were assessed comparing subjects' retrospective preintervention and postintervention responses included in the postintervention questionnaire. Forty-five second-year participants completed both questionnaires. Participants demonstrated significant improvements in attitude and self-assessed knowledge of end-of-life care in 23 of 24 Likert-type scale questions. The end-of-life curriculum led to significant improvements in participant knowledge and attitudes about the conceptual and practical aspects of end-of-life care. The structure of the rotation should be reproducible in many locales.

Key Words: graduate medical education • terminal care • evaluation studies

American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine®, Vol. 23, No. 6, 439-446 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1049909106294829


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?