Changes in Medical Students’ Attitudes Towards End-of-Life Decisions Across Different Years of Medical Training

BACKGROUND Decisions to forgo life-sustaining medical treatments in terminally ill patients are challenging, but ones that all doctors must face. Few studies have evaluated the impact of medical training on medical students’ attitudes towards end-of-life decisions and none have compared them with an age-matched group of non-medical students. OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of medical education on medical students’ attitudes towards end-of-life decisions in acutely ill patients. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS Four hundred and two students at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. MEASUREMENTS Completion of a questionnaire focused on end-of-life decisions. MAIN RESULTS The number of students who felt that cardiopulmonary resuscitation must always be provided was higher in non-medical students (76/90 (84%)) and medical students with less training (67/84 (80%) in year 1 vs. 18/67 (27%) in year 5) (p