Integrate grief training throughout the medical curriculum using interdisciplinary collaborations and experiential learning opportunities¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 5 claims (3 for, 2 mixed) · 1 study (1 review), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 5 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The review recommends moving grief training out of isolated voluntary workshops and integrating it throughout undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. It argues that "learning was amplified by integrating grief training into other areas of medical education", providing opportunities to practise and apply new skills, and calls for future studies to explore interdisciplinary collaborations and experiential learning. Examples in the reviewed literature include running grief training concurrently with anatomy dissection labs, mandatory bereavement debriefing sessions after patient deaths, and students shadowing a trauma chaplain for a day.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Faculty leads or champions to sustain grief training activities after staff turnover
• Class sizes small enough to provide quality training on grief

Constraints¶

• The review limits its evidence base to pediatrics, family medicine and psychiatry, and notes most reviewed trainings were short and voluntary

Target Learners¶

• medical students
• postgraduate residents
• physicians in continuing professional development

Target Learning Goals¶

• grief support and communication skills around death, dying and bereavement
• self-awareness and coping with patient loss
• interprofessional collaboration

Claims¶

• Grief training in medical education is most often delivered as short voluntary workshops focused on transmitting knowledge about death, dying and bereavement [+W]
• Implementing grief training faces multi-level challenges including small class sizes, faculty turnover and low motivation because some physicians do not consider grief support part of their job [~W]
• Grief training outcomes were usually measured by immediate self-assessment showing increased knowledge and comfort, with few studies measuring patient care, physician well-being or longitudinal effects [~W]
• Trainees valued grief training activities involving reflection, debriefing with peers and the direct involvement of bereaved caregivers [+W]
• In a Danish RCT, trained physicians identified more cases of complicated grief and prescribed fewer psychotropic drugs than untrained control physicians [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Design RaT programs as longitudinal, integrated curricula with structured instruction, direct practice, formative feedback, and ongoing coaching
• Integrate MLM education longitudinally with experiential learning and robust program evaluation
• Integrate nutrition throughout medical training using a vertical spiral curriculum with practical teaching methods such as cooking lessons
• Breadcrumb strategy: embed small AI-native skill exercises, nudges, and prompts across multiple courses throughout the four-year curriculum

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Sikstrom L, Saikaly R, Ferguson G, Mosher PJ, Bonato S, Soklaridis S. (2019). Being there: A scoping review of grief support training in medical education. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224325