Abstract: Objective To investigate the cognition and application of palliative care in ESRD among clinical medicine students and to provide some reference for the reform of medical education in medical curriculums. Methods From December in 2018, self-designed questionnaires were sent out to 200 medical undergraduate selected randomly from the grade 2014 and 2015 of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. Questionnaire stars were used to investigate the awareness of medical students on palliative care and its application in the treatment of end-stage renal disease, and the current situation of palliative medical education of medical students during undergraduate education. Results 59.6%(102/171) students failed to understand the difference between palliative care and palliative care; while 42.1%(72/171) of students had insufficient understanding of palliative care for ESRD patients. 81.3%(139/171) of students had never learned palliative care program in class and 83.5%(116/139) of them prefer to get knowledge of palliative care from clinical practice rather than in class. We also found students experienced clinical practice had deeper understanding on palliative care than those without clinical practice[(4.53±0.55)vs(4.34±0.69),t=2.08]. Conclusions Cognition and application of palliative care in ESRD among medical students still needs to be improved. Effective access is urged to obtain the knowledge of palliative care for medical students.

Key words: Palliative care, Cognition, Chronic kidney disease, End-stage renal disease