A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PALLIATIVE CARE ATTITUDE BETWEEN MEDICAL STUDENTS AND NON-MEDICAL STUDENTS
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Abstract
Purpose: understand the current status of college students’ knowledge of Palliative care, and comparatively analyze the difference in awareness and cognition between medical and non-medical students, and to provide basic data for the advancement of Palliative care education and clinical practice. Methods: from August to December 2019, a convenient sampling method was used to conduct an online survey to 405 college students with self-edited questionnaires, including a dimension of awareness, recognition, and knowledge content of Palliative care, and 405 valid questionnaires were recovered. Results: a total of 97 out of 405 college students have knowledge about Palliative care, with an overall awareness rate of 24%. There was a significant difference between medical students and non-medical students in the understanding of Palliative care (X2=34.671, P=0.000), and the awareness rate of medical students was higher. After understanding the knowledge of Palliative care, 73.8% of medical students held an approval attitude for it, and 49.5% of non-medical students approved it too. There was a significant difference between the two (X2=27.216, P=0.000). “When their family members are suffering from incurable diseases,” 64.2%medical students received relatives to have Palliative care and 49.1% of non-medical students agree with medical students. There was a significant difference between the two (X2=10.803, P=0.005). Conclusions: medical students’ awareness and recognition of Palliative care is higher than that of non-medical students, but the overall level of college students’ awareness of Palliative care is relatively low, and further knowledge education is needed.