Educational needs for palliative care of Italian undergraduate students

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Background. Since most of the clinical training is carried out within the academic departments, the future physicians may not feel prepared to deal with clinical situations typical of primary care.Aim of the study was to evaluate how students of the last year of course of the School of Medicine assess their level of professional autonomy with respect to different clinical situations of primary care. Methods. Anonymous questionnaire about ten primary care clinical cases. The students were required to self-assess the degree of preparation for an autonomous treatment for each clinical case on a scale of four levels. Results. In 124 questionnaires the percentage of students who claim to be able to manage the various clinical situations in full autonomy or with a limited specialist integration varies from 54% and 90% with the exception of the scenario "palliative care" (14%). Conclusions. Students, who are at the end of their course of study feel poorly adequate to deal with the settings of palliative care, a problem that has not been considered sufficiently during their training experience. Direct experience in various setting represents an essential component for an all-round training.