Americans diagnosed with serious illnesses tend to have significantly poorer quality of life due to limited access to reliable palliative and end-of-life care. Individuals living with these conditions continue to experience health care that does not meet their needs, experience undue suffering, require increased care visits, and have limited or…

This study examined teachers' knowledge and support when working with students with terminal illness or having experienced a student death. One hundred and ninety teachers of students with physical or multiple disabilities responded to a 40 item questionnaire that was distributed nationally. Results indicated that teachers have greater knowledge…

Background: Formal training in dealing with death and dying issues is not a standard content area in communication sciences and disorders programmes' curricula. At the same time, it cannot be presumed that pre-professional students' personal background equips them to deal with these issues. Aim: To investigate the perceptions of pre-professional…

Student nurses are involved in caring for patients who are actively dying or who have been told they have a terminal illness and are faced with the process of dying. Students encounter these patients in hospitals, nursing homes, at home or in hospice care settings. According to Robinson (2004), "nurses are the healthcare providers that are most…

Examined how circumstances of a suicide victim's life may influence people's responses in college students (n=180) who read a fictitious newspaper article about a man who committed suicide following psychological pain, physical pain, or terminal illness. Results indicated that subjects were intolerant of suicide when the victim was suffering from…

A survey of 127 hospice physicians attempted to identify appropriate performance objectives for medical training in care of the terminally ill. The 39 objectives identified covered physician attitudes, knowledge, and skills. Thirty-four of the objectives were validated. The list of objectives with their ratings is included. (MSE)