Medical training and death: a descriptive study on the emotional impact in palliative care

Abstract

Introduction: The social service in palliative care aims for doctors in the last stage of training in the Bachelor of Medical Surgeon to integrate a vision of care towards people who face diseases that limit or threaten their lives. Coping with death represents emotional and existential challenges, however, improve training in palliative care can promote self-competence in working with death.
Aim: This study aim to evaluate the self-competence to work with death in undergrate doctors, before and after performing social service in a palliative care unit, as well as depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms.
Method: The emotional and existential dimension of self-competence in death work was evaluated in 25 undergrate doctors from two generations of the Rotary social service in Palliative Care of the UNAM Faculty of Medicine, before starting the social service and at the end of it. The spanish versio of Self-competence in Death Work Scale (SC-DWS), the Beck Depression Inventory (IDB) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (IAB) were used in this study. Descriptive statistics and Student’s t test for related samples were used.
Results: In the participants of the 2019 generation, a statistically significant increase was observed in the total score of the SC-DWS, in its existencial and emotional subscales and in depressive symptoms. In the participants of the 2020 generation, a decrease was observed in the total score of the SC-DWS and in the existencial and emotional subscales.
Conclusion: This study provides evidence of the relevance of training in palliative care in undergraduate doctors to increase self-competence in death work, especially in highly stressful contexts due to its relationship with death processes such as the COVID-19 pandemic.