PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop and pilot a cancer pain e
ducation course for medical students, using a structured home hospice visit
,
DESCRIPTION OF STUDY: A 1-hour home hospice visit was presented to 57 senio
r medical students. The content and Objective criteria for the structured h
ome hospice visit were developed by a multidisciplinary group of experts. D
uring a 1-hour interview, students completed a cancer pain history, perform
ed a focused physical examination, and received feedback and teaching regar
ding the essentials of cancer pain management from the hospice nurse. All s
tudents and hospice patients completed a multi-item evaluation questionnair
e with a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree) r
egarding the structured home hospice visit.
RESULTS: Most students agreed strongly that the home hospice visit was a po
sitive experience (mean +/- SD 4.8 +/- 0.44) that helped them to understand
flit, management of cancer pain (mean 4.7 +/- 0.46) and opioid-related sid
e effects (mean 45 +/- 0.57). Most patients enjoyed visiting with the stude
nts (mean 4.90 +/- 0.30), agreed that the visit was not tiring (mean 4.81 /- 0.51), and felt that they benefited from participating (mean 4.76 +/- 0.
54).
CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The authors concluded the following: 1) that medical
students benefited from learning about cancer pain assessment and manageme
nt through the use of a structured horne hospice visit; 2) that a structure
d home hospice visit helped the students to learn the basics of cancer pain
management; 3) that patients enjoyed their role as teacher for medical stu
dents; and 4) that senior hospice nurses provided excellent instruction for
medical students in the management of cancer pain.