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. 2020 Dec 28;20(1):516.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-020-02411-y.

The impact of death and dying on the personhood of medical students: a systematic scoping review

Chong Yao Ho  1   2 , Cheryl Shumin Kow  1   2 , Chin Howe Joshua Chia  1   2 , Jia Ying Low  1   2 , Yong Hao Melvin Lai  1   2 , Sarah-Kei Lauw  1   2 , Ashley Ern Hui How  2   3 , Lorraine Hui En Tan  1   2 , Xin Ling Lisa Ngiam  1   2 , Natalie Pei Xin Chan  1   2 , Tze Yin Joshua Kuek  1   2 , Nur Haidah Ahmad Kamal  1   2 , Jeng Long Chia  1   2 , Ahmad Bin Hanifah Marican Abdurrahman  1   2 , Min Chiam  4 , Yun Ting Ong  1   2 , Annelissa Mien Chew Chin  5 , Ying Pin Toh  6   7 , Stephen Mason  8 , Lalit Kumar Radha Krishna  9   10   11   12   13   14   15
Affiliations

The impact of death and dying on the personhood of medical students: a systematic scoping review

Chong Yao Ho et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: The re-introduction of medical students into healthcare systems struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic raises concerns as to whether they will be supported when confronted with death and dying patients in resource-limited settings and with reduced support from senior clinicians. Better understanding of how medical students respond to death and dying will inform educationalists and clinicians on how to best support them.

Methods: We adopt Krishna's Systematic Evidence Based Approach to carry out a Systematic Scoping Review (SSR in SEBA) on the impact of death and dying on medical students. This structured search process and concurrent use of thematic and directed content analysis of data from six databases (Split Approach) enhances the transparency and reproducibility of this review.

Results: Seven thousand six hundred nineteen were identified, 149 articles reviewed and 52 articles included. The Split Approach revealed similar themes and categories that correspond to the Innate, Individual, Relational and Societal domains in the Ring Theory of Personhood.

Conclusion: Facing death and dying amongst their patients affect how medical students envisage their personhood. This underlines the need for timely, holistic and longitudinal support systems to ensure that problems faced are addressed early. To do so, there must be effective training and a structured support mechanism.

Keywords: Dying patients; Medical schools; Medical student; Organisational ethics; Personhood; Resilience; Ring theory of personhood; Undergraduate medical education.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

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Fig. 1
The SEBA Process
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The Ring Theory of Personhood
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PRISMA Flowchart
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Novel structured approach to SSR
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Fig. 5
Caring for the dying provokes ‘dyssynchrony’ (red arrows) between the Rings of Personhood
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‘Dyssynchrony’ between the rings of personhood exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic
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Fig. 7
Suggested interventions (in blue) and their target(s)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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