Perception of medical students about the termination of life

Abstract The advancement of medicine has improved the treatment of diseases, modifying the population’s morbidity and mortality pattern, with an increase in chronic diseases. This phenomenon made it urgent to properly interpret the termination of life. Considering this need, this cross–sectional, descriptive and analytical study analyzed data regarding the perceptions of 111 students from the sixth year of the medical school about end-of-life palliative care. Data were collected between August and November 2016 through a questionnaire and analyzed by statistical tests using the Iramuteq software. 37.3% of students reported difficulty communicating a patient’s death to their family; 60% of them felt unprepared or had doubts regarding how to deal with death in the emergency department; 25% of students reported not knowing the term Euthanasia; 53%, Orthothanasia; and, 56%, Dysthanasia. Results show that there are still gaps in the knowledge of medical students making evident the need for medical schools to reinforce educational practices regarding death.