[Surgery meets palliative care : Should palliative care be integrated into surgical training?]

Abstract

The transfer of knowledge, experience and practical skills in the care of patients in palliative settings takes place in a largely unstructured and sporadic manner in surgical resident training in Austria. The present work assesses the status quo using an online survey of residents in general and visceral surgery, presents their subjective experiences with palliative care and expectations on palliative care providers and their training needs. Over 80% of residents have frequent contact with patients in palliative settings and nearly 60% care for patients in end-of-life situations. Support from a palliative care team is experienced as helpful. Residents would like more support and articulate how they envision this form of support. They rate their own palliative skills as medium to good but 85% would still like additional training and 68% advocate for the integration of palliative care into the surgical curriculum.