Many more die from heart failure and stroke. While a heathful lifestyle increases the odds of living to an advanced age in relatively good condition, most people, whether they die early or late in life, do experience some period of illness and incapacitation before death. Although the end of life is preordained at its beginning, few physicians and other health care professionals are taught how to ease the physical pain and debilitating symptoms of their dying patients, and how to address the powerful feelings of anger, helplessness, and grief that patients and their families experience at such a time. Nor do most health care professionals receive guidance and support to cope with their own feelings of failure, inadequacy, powerlessness, or loss when a patient dies. Education, skill, and experience are just as essential to mastering the intricacies of palliative care as they are to becoming competent in the traditional areas of diagnosis, treatment and cure.
Institutional resources are necessary to fund palliative care education and services.
Mentors, role models, and peer respect and support are essential to the educational process. Until recently, few medical educational and institutional resources have been devoted to the care of the dying. Even very recent studies point to a severe lack of physician education in palliative care at all points-in medical school, on the postgraduate residency level, and in continuing education for practicing physicians. Not surprisingly, the results of this dearth of education are apparent in surveys of medical students, residents, and practicing physicians. High percentages of those studying or practicing medicine indicate lack of appreciation for patients' pain, negative attitudes toward the use of opioids to relieve pain, erroneous beliefs about patient addiction, and acknowledged lack of confidence in their ability to provide palliative care.