%0 Journal Article
%T Knowledge and attitude of final - year medical students in Germany towards palliative care - an interinstitutional questionnaire-based study
%A Martin Weber
%A Sven Schmiedel
%A Friedemann Nauck
%A Bernd Alt-Epping
%J BMC Palliative Care
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1472-684x-10-19
%X We designed a composite, three-step questionnaire (self estimation of confidence, knowledge questions, and opinion on the actual and future medical curriculum) conducted online of final - year medical students at two universities in Germany.From a total of 318 enrolled students, 101 responded and described limited confidence in dealing with specific palliative care issues, except for pain therapy. With regard to questions examining their knowledge base in palliative care, only one third of the students (33%) answered more than half of the questions correctly. Only a small percentage of students stated they had gained sufficient knowledge and experience in palliative care during their studies, and the vast majority supported the introduction of palliative care as a mandatory part of the undergraduate curriculum.This study identifies medical students' limited confidence and knowledge base in palliative care in 2 German universities, and underlines the importance of providing a mandatory palliative care curriculum.The necessity of improving palliative care for patients with advanced and incurable diseases has been increasingly acknowledged over the last two decades in Germany, and is now sustained by broad societal consensus [1]. Additionally, the German Medical Association has commented on palliative care in several national assemblies and has strongly requested improvements in several areas, including medical education [2]. Until recently, palliative care was not a mandatory part of the undergraduate curriculum, and it remained the responsibility of the medical schools to offer courses in palliative care. Only a few of the 35 medical schools in Germany included mandatory courses, whereas the vast majority did not provide comprehensive palliative care education [3,4].However, as a consequence of changes in the Medical Licensure Act of 2009 (£¿ApprO as of 03.07.2002, last amended in 31.07.2009, ¡ì27 and supplement 15 to ¡ì29 sect. 3 sentence 2), palliative care has become
%K Palliative care
%K knowledge
%K confidence
%K undergraduate curriculum
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-684X/10/19