ArticleBMC medical education2024
Handling the desire to die- evaluation of an elective course for medical students.
Article in BMC medical education, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Attitudes of undergraduate medical students towards end-of-life decisions: a systematic review of influencing factors.BMC medical education · 2025Pooled it
- Development, implementation, and evaluation of a registry for the documentation and analysis of assisted suicide in Germany (RegAS) - study protocol.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
- [Articulation of patients' suicidal ideation within the therapeutic context-experiences and needs of hospital healthcare professionals].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2026Article
- If it were me…. Austrian undergraduate medical students' attitudes towards end-of-life decisions: a cross-sectional study.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
- Palliative and end-of-life care from an education lens. An international systematic review of undergraduate medical and nursing students' knowledge, perceptions, and orientation towards palliative and end-of-life care.Palliative care and social practice · 2026Review
- Final-year undergraduate nursing and medical students' knowledge, perception, orientation and perceived self-efficacy to provide palliative and end-of-life care: Qualitative findings from a parallel mixed-methods study.Palliative care and social practice · 2026Article
- [Knowledge and attitudes toward assisted suicide : Survey of members of the German Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (DGAI)].Die Anaesthesiologie · 2025Article
- Carers' Perspective on Voluntary Stopping of Eating and Drinking: A Systematic Mixed-Methods Review of Motives and Attitudes.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- [Dealing with assisted suicide-knowledge, attitudes and experiences of members of the German Association for Palliative Medicine].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2025Article
- Knowledge, Self-Efficacy, and Correlates in Palliative and End-of-Life Care: Quantitative Insights from Final-Year Nursing and Medical Students in a Mixed-Methods Study.Palliative care and social practice · 2025Article
- Promoting interdisciplinarity and the timely integration of palliative care through the development and implementation of a blended learning elective for medical students.GMS journal for medical education · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe desire to die can occur in palliative care patients with a prevalence of up to 22%. Not every desire to die is accompanied by a pressure to act, but usually by a burden that can arise from various factors. To address this burden appropriately, health care workers should be trained. Based on an evaluated course on handling the desire to die, an elective course for medical students was developed and evaluated. In order to identify the impact of the elective course's content, a comparison of attitudes towards assisted dying with two other participant groups was conducted. Therefore, three questions from the evaluation of the elective course were used.
methodOnline evaluation of the elective and questions addressing attitude were assessed using a five-point Likert scale. The specific outcome-based assessment was determined using the Comparative Self-Assessment Gain. The main participant group (group 1) were students who took the elective. The additional survey on attitudes towards assisted dying included undergraduate medical students who had taken compulsory palliative care courses (group 2) and physicians who had taken an introductory course in intensive care or emergency medicine (group 3).
resultsGroup 1 (n = 13, response rate rr = 86.7%) was very satisfied with the blended learning format (100%) and the course itself (100%). They were able to deepen their knowledge (81.0%) and train skills (71.2%) through the course. In the additional surveys, there were 37 students in group 2 (rr = 66.1%) and 258 physicians in group 3 (rr = 73.6%). Willingness to assist with or accompany the various options for assisted dying varied according to the type of assistance. Among the participants, it can be summarised that the highest willingness was shown by the students of group 2 followed by the physicians of group 3 and the students of group 1.
conclusionsA course on handling the desire to die of palliative patients can deepen knowledge and train communication skills and thus support self-confidence. Dealing with the background of the desire to die, knowledge about assisted dying, but also one's own attitudes and responsibilities can influence the attitude towards assisted dying.
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