Death and Medical Education

Abstract With the changes that have occurred in Medicine, particularly in recent decades, death has been transferred form the family to the hospital environment. Doctors now find they need to deal with death and the dying. Only recently have medical schools become concerned with the subject. In Brazil, isolated endeavors have resulted from the personal concerns of psychologists, nurses and doctors. The responses obtained in the present report underline the need to include this subject in the Medicine curriculum. The subject of terminal illness is not a concern during undergraduate years and students thus often resort to denial and omnipotence to avoid suffering as far as possible. There should be a concern to educate, and not just instruct, both teachers who confess to being unprepared to discuss the subject, and students.