• Yoshihisa Hirakawa, Yuichiro Masuda, Kazumasa Uemura, Masafumi Kuzuya, Miwako Noguchi, Takaya Kimiata, and Akihisa Iguchi.
• Department of Geriatrics, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine.
• Nihon Ronen Igakkai Zasshi. 2005 Sep 1; 42 (5): 540-5.

AimWe conducted a national survey to examine the current status of programs to teach end-of-life care to undergraduates of Japanese medical and nursing schools in 2004.MethodsOur survey focused on the following areas: (1) the present status of curricula to teach end-of-life care, (2) topics covered in the curricula, (3) details of the timing of existing end-of-life care teaching programs and of departments responsible for it, (4) teaching methods, (5) education assessment tool, (6) reading list of textbooks.Results50.6% of the medical schools and 40.9% of the nursing schools participated. Most of the schools offered end-of-life care education programs, and 45% of the medical schools and 68.9% of the nursing schools offered education concerning end-of-life care for elderly. The most frequent teaching timing was the fourth year of medical school and the third year of nursing school. Broader end-of-life topics were covered in the curriculum in the nursing schools than the medical schools. One fourth of the nursing schools offered a separate course in end-of-life care. The mean number of teaching hours was 7.6 in the medical schools and 35.5 in the nursing schools. More nursing schools offered educational programs in which students can gain experience with end-of-life care than medical schools. A few institutions used practiced examinations to evaluate students' learning. A reading list of end-of-life care textbooks was provided in 10% of the medical schools and 35.6% of the nursing schools.ConclusionOur survey suggested that systematizing end-of-life care education and improvement in text content are on the way.

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