Biomedical subjects
A C Mermann
Publications and source records attributed to A C Mermann.
Learning to care for the dying: a survey of medical schools and a model course.
Education on death and dying is relatively new in the United States; a recent survey indicated that there is little consensus on teaching methods and content of courses. This paper reports the authors' 1989 survey of 111 U.S. medical schools, and describes a death and dying seminar offered at the Yale School of Medicine using patients as teachers. Regarding the survey, the authors mailed questionnaires to 124 schools; 111 responded. Twelve of the schools (11%) provided no formal teaching in death and dying. Of the 99 schools that did, 30 provided one or two lectures in the first two years. Fifty-one schools taught death and dying as a module of a larger required course, and 18 schools offered an elective. Lecture was the predominant teaching method, and patient participation was usually restricted to a class presentation. Regarding the Yale seminar, each student meets individually with a patient during the semester and in small groups with the instructor to discuss the interviews, personal reactions, and professional issues in the care of his or her patient-teacher. This seminar enables students to learn the personal effects of serious illness, coping techniques used in daily living, characteristics of the caring physician, and skills needed to provide compassionate care.
On opposing the use of the pacifier.
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Coping strategies of selected physicians.
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The doctor's critic: the unorthodox practitioner.
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Spiritual aspects of death and dying.
Dying is an event beyond our comprehension, an experience that can only be imagined. Patients with cancer have a gift denied many others: some time to prepare for the approaching end of life. This time can be used to bring old conflicts to a close, to say goodbye and seek forgiveness from others, to express love and gratitude for the gifts of a life. Physicians can help patients by being aware of the spiritual dimensions to life that many patients have. In major religious traditions, death is accepted as the natural end of the gift of life and as a point of transition to another, yet unknown, existence. For many patients, it is not death that is feared, but abandonment. The physician's awareness of the spiritual needs of patients can make care of the dying more rewarding and fulfilling for all concerned.