Palliative care awareness among Indian undergraduate health care students: A needs-assessment study to determine incorporation of palliative care education in undergraduate medical, nursing and allied health education

Purpose: Quality assurance data worldwide suggests that the current healthcare system is providing inadequate care for the dying. Current health care education focuses entirely on cure and care is almost compromised or nonexistent in end-of-life settings. The purpose of this study was to determine palliative care awareness among Indian undergraduate health care students and assess the need for incorporating palliative medicine education into undergraduate health education. Methods: A non-randomized population based study was conducted using 39-point questionnaire. Undergraduate medical, nursing and allied health students of Manipal University were the target population. Results: 326 students participated in the study. 61.7% of students feel that resuscitation is appropriate in advanced metastatic cancer. 67.5% feel that all dying patients need palliative care and most of the students think that palliative care is equivalent to pain medicine, geriatric medicine and rehabilitation medicine. 89% of students think that Morphine causes addiction in palliative care setting. 60.7% of students feel that prognosis should only be communicated to the family. Conclusion: The outcomes of the study showed that the basic knowledge of palliative care among students was inadequate, and students are unprepared and uncertain in their approach of delivering end-of-life care.