The Living Will: Knowledge and Attitudes of Medical Interns

ABSTRACT Introduction The living will is a document in which the patient defines what kind of medical procedures he or she wishes to undergo during the final stage of life, and is an important tool for guaranteeing the patient’s dignity and autonomy. Objective To evaluate the level of understanding among medical interns about the living will and end-of-life decisions. Methods This was a quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted with 147 medical students taking their internship, through a questionnaire composed of 10 questions. These questions enabled us to evaluate the students’ level of knowledge about the living will, and to verify their personal opinions on how far the content of this document should be respected, and to ask whether they had had an opportunity to discuss the living will during their undergraduate studies. The students’ knowledge of the living will was categorized into three groups: “clear understanding”, “partial notion,” and “misconception or misunderstanding of the term.” Results Among the interns interviewed, only 12.9% had a clear understanding of the meaning of the term “living will”, while 74.2% had a partial notion of the term and 12.2% had a misconception of the term. Nonetheless, 96.6% of the students reported that this topic was discussed during their graduate studies, and 87.1% reported knowledge of Federal Medical Council Resolution no. 1995 of 2012. Most of the students (98%) stated that in the case of a terminally ill patient with a living will, they would comply with the provisions of this document. Conclusion Although many of the students had some knowledge of the term “living will”, only a small portion of them had a clear understanding of its meaning. Despite this, their attitudes towards a patient with a living will were clearly positive, demonstrating good acceptance of the living will among future physicians.