Death and Dying

Welcome to AMSA About AMSA Committees & Interest Groups Death and Dying

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Death and Dying Interest Group

This Interest Group arose in response to medical students' concern that medical school leaves us inadequately prepared to communicate with terminally ill patients, as well as being poorly equipped emotionally to deal with matters of death and dying. This is important to us on a personal level as we face dying patients almost daily on the wards. On a professional level, we address important issues such as aid in dying and palliative care. In response to these needs, we as an interest group provide guidance, support and resources for students who wish to supplement their medical education in the area of death and dying. As co-coordinators, we act as facilitators for this learning, but the Interest Group needs your active participation to be successful!

End of Life Education

AMSA-VITAS End of Life Education Fellowship Program
Introduces students to end-of-life care issues and develop curricula for their medical schools. With program sites in Ft. Lauderdale, the program combines an orientation to end of life care with weekly seminars and field placements at local hospices, nursing homes and inpatient hospice units.

End-of-Life Fellows Campus Projects, PowerPoint Lunch Lectures & Presentations

Death and Dying: Recapturing the Soul of Medicine

Project Guides

7 Step Plan for Starting a Death & Dying Interest Group at Your School
Playing God: The Dilemma of the Dying Patient
Takes a controversial case from a local health care facility and utilizes members of the health care team involved in the case as presenters. Suggests methods for audience examination of the issues involved.
A Program to Honor the Cadavers used During Anatomy
A planning guide for students and the cadaver's families as a way to honor the tremendous gift bestowed upon medical students yearly through local donation programs.
A Dinner Sponsored by Hospice and AMSA
Forming Partnerships with your Local Hospice

Articles by Dr. Ira Byock

Author and president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Note, AMSA has been permitted to offer these articles but Dr. Byock retains all copyrights of his material. Please cite these references if you use this material.

Consciously Walking the Fine Line: Thoughts on a Hospice Response to Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, Journal of Palliative Care 9:3 pp 25-28 Autumn 1993
A Letter to The National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine Committee on Care at the End of Life, May 20, 1996, Academy of Hospice Physicians
Notes of a Hospice Physician, The Western Journal of Medicine, Vol 164, No. 4, pp 367-8, April 1996
Patient Refusal of Nutrition and Hydration: Walking the Ever-Finer Line, The American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care, March/April 1995 pp 8-13
The Nature of Suffering and the Nature of Opportunity at the End of Life, Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, Vol. 12: 2, pp 237-251 May 1996
When suffering persists...., Journal of Palliative Care Vol.10, No.2, pp 8-13, 1994

End-of-Life Care Curriculum Guide

Addresses many important issues in dealing with terminally ill patients, with topics ranging from delivering a terminal diagnosis to addressing spiritual perspectives on end-of-life.

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