(120) Rendezvous with death: Preparing future pharmacists for death and dying experiences

Objective : (1) To assess if an educational intervention can improve student pharmacist preparedness to face end-of-life care (EOLC), and (2) to assess students’ perceived ability to provide support to patients and families in EOLC.

Methods: Third-year pharmacy students (N=33) enrolled in an Advanced Bioethics course participated in a session consisting of a pharmacist panel and a branched narrative activity. The session focused on providing pharmacist perspectives on EOLC in practice and applying practical communication tools to a patient case. Pre- and post-surveys collected demographic information and responses to a modified Lazenby’s End of Life Care Survey. Demographic items were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Pre-post data were analyzed for differences with the Wilcoxon sign-rank test.

Results: Of 25 pre/post questions, 13 were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Following the session, students felt more comfortable dealing with ethical issues related to EOLC (p=0.002), being present with dying patients (p=0.008), and assisting family members and coworkers through the grieving process (p=0.005). Students felt more familiar with hospice services (p=0.005) and maintaining continuity across the healthcare team (p=0.012). There were no significant changes for items related to palliative care principles and national guidelines (p=0.227), recognizing impending death (p=0.158), and comfort dealing with patients’ and families’ religious and cultural perspectives (p=0.305).

Conclusions: A panel and branched narrative is a successful intervention to incorporate EOLC into a school of pharmacy curriculum. While this educational intervention can introduce students to EOLC concepts, future iterations could add an experiential component to further build student preparedness to face death and dying situations upon graduation.