Özet:

Introduction: The aim of this study was to determine the experiences and attitudes of pediatric residents and medical students about approaching to child who encounters with death and to the family who have lost their child.Materials and Methods: Totally 50 pediatric residents and medical students from the Department of Pediatrics at İnonü University included in this study. A 5-part evaluation form that was prepared by the authors was applied. These parts consist of questions about frequency of experiences with child death, competency levels related to sharing bad news and explaining death to children and family.Results: The mean age of the participants was 26.9±4.0 years and 56% of them were males. The percentage of experiencing child death was 92%. Of the respondents 80% reported that they didn’t feel adequately trained about sharing bad news. 68% of the residents and 76% of the students stated that they haven’t been trained on approaches on ‘‘death’’ and on fatal disease and all of the participants agreed on necessity of taking education. Of the respondents 46% consider that children begin to perceive ‘‘death’’ issue at ages of 6-7. Conclusions: In this study, it was detected that with the increase of frequency of experiencing child death, the rate of competency level wasn’t rising as well as having difficulty with sharing bad news wasn’t decreasing. There are misconceptions in communities about how to explain ‘‘death’’ concept to child and how to console families who have lost their child. The results of this study showed that experiencing ‘‘death’’ frequently alone isn’t effective in increasing the competency level on sharing bad news but education constitutes a significant part. Physicians should learn the developmental characteristics of ‘‘death’’ during medical education and should have necessary knowledge and skills to manage the process after loss.

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