Abstract
Death Education courses have been proposed as an attempt to fill an important gap in academic health education, bringing up topics that are often neglected in teaching, such as the dying process, attitudes towards death, palliative care, professional mourning, among others. Clearly defined objectives are needed, constituting a pedagogical proposal that intends to introduce a humanistic and humanized posture into highly technical courses. This study aimed to describe the implementation of the Death Education Group and to understand how the participants perceive this experience. Eight last-year students, affiliated with a health program at a public university, between 22 and 24 years of age, participated. A self-completion questionnaire was applied at two times: pre and post-intervention. The answers to the open questions were subjected to thematic content analysis. The Group was important as a tool to gain knowledge on how to manage terminality situations, and as a space to reframe death and dying issues and to reflect about attitudes, behaviors, professional roles, and changes in the feelings aroused by the care for patients in critical health conditions.
Groups; Teaching; Attitude to Death; Health Professionals Education; Grief
