Feelings of Medical Students and Resident Doctors Facing Death: a Systematic Review

Abstract: Introduction: Most professionals in the medical field will have to deal with the issue of death. This paper aims to describe the feelings of Brazilian medical students and resident doctors regarding end of life and death, as well as to understand how they experience their undergraduate training and specialization in dealing with this process. Method: This is a systematic literature review based on the PRISMA methodology, conducted between August and December 2019 with the descriptors “medical students” and “death,” in both English and Portuguese, in papers indexed in the Virtual Health Library (VHL). Results: 372 papers were identified in the search; 18 were published studies that met all the established inclusion and exclusion criteria. Analysis of the articles concerning the feelings of medical students and resident doctors facing situations involving death revealed that most studies reported negative experiences, such as fear, insecurity, sadness, anger, and guilt. Despite the subjects and institutionalized strategies still being relatively new, it would seem that as their training and professional practice progress, the young doctors’ negative feelings are attenuated as they experience end-of-life and death situations more frequently, thus learning through observation and posture in these practical situations, seeing as death and dealing with it is part of everyday medical work. Conclusions: Medical students and medical residents in Brazil experience discomfort and difficulty in dealing with the processes of death and dying. To improve their preparedness in this respect, there is a consensus among them about the need to include the theoretical/practical disciplines of Thanatology, Palliative Care and medical psychology in the medical curriculum and to reformulate the content in order to approach the subject of death in a more practical context.