Objective To get a preliminary understanding of trainees' knowledge on palliative medicine's basic concepts in resident standardized training (referred to as “training”) and propose suggestions for improvement.Methods Using self-made questionnaire, 263 residents' standardized training trainees were investigated and conducted data summary in the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from 2015 to 2017 by “questionnaire star” in their wechat group.Through the investigation targeted at basic concepts of palliative medicine and the professional attitude.Results The residents of 49.0%(129/263) had a flawed understanding of the basic concepts of palliative medicine, and there was no significant difference between different age groups, different academic qualifications and different training time (χ²test with all P>0.100). Only 34.2%(90/263) agree that medical staff should play an “authoritative role” in palliative medicine. Assuming that they are in the end of lives, 65.4%(172/263)、80.2%(211/263) and 31.9%(84/263) of those are willing to take the initiative to implement palliative treatment for themselves, their families and patients, and the difference was significant (χ²=133.240,P<0.05). Only 28.1%(74/263) of the respondents think that the time is ripe for our country to promote palliative medicine and only 50.2%(132/263) are confident in the implementation of palliative care in our country.Conclusions There is a lack of palliative medicine education in the current medical education system now and this is one of the important reasons that affect the palliative medicine in mainland China. Therefore, the implementation of palliative medicine education in the medical education system needs to be popularized, strengthened and standardized.