Death, dying, and bereavement in undergraduate dental education: A narrative review

Abstract

As the population ages, and bidirectional relationships between oral and general health become clearer, dentistry has to be prepared for the needs of older adults, including at end of life. Death does not only occur in geriatric populations however; death, dying and bereavement are issues that affect all patients and practitioners. Dental education is not preparing undergraduate students to meet clinical, spiritual, and psychosocial needs of patients and families requiring end‐of‐life care. Further, it does not prepare them for the emotional impact of death on their personal or professional lives. This review examines how death, dying, and bereavement could be integrated into undergraduate dental education. We conducted a narrative review using seven data bases, in English, up to 2018. We retrieved 159 papers, of which 36 were included and analysed thematically. The findings parse into two deductive and one inductive theme: 1. Supporting dental students experiencing death, dying, and bereavement; 2. Teaching death, dying and bereavement: curricula, content, and strategies; and 3. Fostering compassionate care in dental education. Health professions curricula are beginning to address how to support trainees experiencing death and dying in their personal lives and when working with patients and families. Dental education has been slow to adopt this trend. No robust studies addressing how best to educate and support learners and professionals were found. Future research should include an examination of what is currently included in training, and a study with educators and professionals to design how best to prepare learners in their training and practice.

Construction of life-and-death education contents for the elderly: a Delphi study

“…As the physical, psychological, and social characteristics of different groups are different, the contents of life-and-death education for the elderly constructed in this study were different from the related education of the rest of groups. Life-and-death education for medical and health workers focuses on palliative-and-hospice care skills [63]. The content of life-and-death education for cancer patients focuses on the acceptance of death by patients and their families and to an optimal choice of palliative-and-hospice care [24].…”

Critically engaging vulnerability: Rethinking oral health with vulnerabilized populations

“…At a practice level, this could also include trauma-informed care, and grief literacy. 51,52 Additionally, empowering dental professionals to engage with and navigate the landscape of policy makers is key to supporting a united goal for participatory action with and not for vulnerabilized peoples. And finally, as Katz et al point out, public health has not traditionally included research or research approaches that get at 'individuals and groups that benefit from services others cannot access', or 'the individuals and groups responsible for enacting the policies and processes that generate vulnerability in the first place'.…”

It's time to make dental education ‘grief literate’

“…Research looking explicitly at the place of grief in dental schools is scant 1 . What should grief compel us to teach and do?…”

“…What do we know about how grief manifests in dental patients? Again, there is little published evidence 1 . Dental research is increasingly focusing on understanding relationships between general health and oral health.…”

“…Yet, dentistry has paid limited attention to death, dying, and bereavement 1 . While research in oral health palliative care is slowly increasing our focus on the mouths of dying patients, there is still next to nothing on those left behind after the death – the grievers.…”