Death education: a survey of U.S. colleges and schools of pharmacy.

: This survey was conducted to assess the present state of death education available to pharmacy students at both the BS and PharmD degree levels. Eighty-five percent of the colleges and schools of pharmacy located in the United States provided information concerning: (i) attitudes toward teaching death education; (ii) present offerings; (iii) academic background of instructors and departments responsible for death education programs; and (iv) course information. It was determined that 38 colleges of pharmacy offered some form of death education in their curricula during 1985. However, only 12 schools offered a full semester course, and many schools offered death education as an elective through a discipline other than pharmacy. As a result, a majority of graduates are still leaving pharmacy schools without any instruction in death education. The implications of these and other findings are discussed.