Internal Medicine Residents’ Beliefs, Attitudes, and Experiences Relating to Palliative Care: A Qualitative Study:

Background:Internal medicine residents are frequently called upon to provide palliative care to hospitalized patients, but report feeling unprepared to do so effectively. Curricular development to enhance residents’ palliative care skills and competencies requires an understanding of current beliefs, attitudes and learning priorities.Methods:We conducted a qualitative study consisting of semi-structured interviews with ten internal medicine residents to explore their understanding of and experiences with palliative care.Results:All of the residents interviewed had a sound theoretical understanding of palliative care, but faced many challenges in being able to provide care in practice. The challenges described by residents were system-related, patient-related and provider-related. They identified several priority areas for further learning, and discussed ways in which their current education in palliative care could be enhanced.Conclusions:Our findings provide important insights to guide curricular develop...