A Novel Curriculum to Improve Medical Student Preparedness to have Advance Care Planning Discussions

Background: Physicians report inadequate training in advance care planning (ACP) discussions despite the importance of these skills for practicing physicians including new residents. Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of a novel curriculum to prepare graduating medical students to have ACP discussions. Design: An ACP curriculum was implemented within a new fourth-year medical student elective with a focus on interactive educational methods and simulated experiences. Setting/Subjects: Forty-seven students received the curriculum over 3 years at a medium-sized, urban medical school. Measurements: Students were surveyed regarding attitudes and comfort related to ACP discussions and end-of-life (EOL) topics before and after the course. Additionally, students were asked about baseline experiences in the pre-course survey and perceived effectiveness of the educational methods in the post-course survey. Results: Comfort discussing EOL care decisions without supervision rose from 4% to 36% after the course with none of the students feeling they needed maximal help from a supervisor after the course compared to 51% before the course. All students agree or strongly agreed (Likert 4 or 5) that they felt prepared to discuss patient’s wishes and values in EOL care with a real patient or family after the course. Conclusions: An ACP curriculum can increase student comfort and preparedness to have these conversations as residents. Students found small group discussions and the chance for direct practice with simulated patients to be most helpful. These findings can help guide implementation of ACP curricula in medical education.