Summary
The confluence of enhanced attention to primary care and palliative care education presents educators with an opportunity to improve both (as well as patient care) through integrated teaching. Improvements in palliative care education will have benefits for dying patients and their families, but will also extend to the care of many other primary care patients, including geriatric patients and those with chronic illnesses, who make up a large proportion of the adult primary care population. In addition, caring for the dying, and teaching others to carry out this task, can be an important vehicle for personal and professional growth and development for both students and their teachers.
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Developed for the National Consensus Conference on Medical Education for Care Near the End of Life, Washington, D.C., May 16–17, 1998.
Support for the National Consensus Conference on Medical Education was provided by the Project on Death in America of the Open Society Institute and by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (grant 029360).
Helpful editorial suggestions were provided by J. Andrew Billings, MD, and David Barnard, PhD.
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Block, S.D., Bernier, G.M., Crawley, L.M. et al. Incorporating palliative care into primary care education. J GEN INTERN MED 13, 768–773 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-1497.1998.00230.x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-1497.1998.00230.x