Corresponding about Death: Analyzing Letters Exchanged between Patients with Cancer and Medical Students

Medical students lack opportunities to have authentic conversations with patients with cancer in busy hospitals. An improved understanding of what such communication might look like may provide a framework for end-of-life curricula. The authors performed thematic analysis using written correspondence between patient and student participants in the University of California, San Francisco’s Firefly Program whose letters discussed death or dying. Four themes emerged: (1) turmoil, (2) grief, (3) making peace, and (4) past, present, and future. Medical students expressed a fifth theme: unmet student expectations. The study provides educators with a unique perspective to help inform curriculum development and patient care.