Impact of Physician Storytelling and Peer-to-Peer Conversation on Medical Students' Coping Skills and Anticipatory Fear Surrounding Patient Death: A Pre-post Cohort Study.

Objective Pre-clerkship medical students often struggle with anticipatory fear of experiences involving patient death. Various multi-session interventions have shown promise in alleviating these fears. In this study, we investigated the impact of a single-session intervention centered on physician storytelling and peer-to-peer discussion on coping skills and anticipatory fear surrounding patient death. Methods A total of 21 second-year pre-clerkship medical students participated in the study. Students participated in a 90-minute session involving pre-recorded interviews of physicians sharing experiences with patient death. During several points throughout the session, students discussed their reflections in small groups. Serial pre- and post-session surveys evaluated anticipatory fears related to patient death and self-efficacy to cope with death using the Thanatophobia Scale and Bugen's Coping With Death Scale, respectively. Data were analyzed for significance using the paired t-test. Results Statistically significant improvements were noted in both the Thanatophobia Scale and Bugen's Coping With Death Scale scores immediately after the session. Mean thanatophobia scores improved from a pre-session score of 23.9 to a post-session score of 21.5 (p = .030). Mean Bugen's Coping With Death Scale scores also improved from a pre-session score of 38.3 to a post-session score of 43.0 (p = .003). Conclusion While anticipatory fears of patient death are common among pre-clerkship medical students, many medical schools may struggle to find space to address this concern in their already packed curricula. This study suggests a feasible and effective method for addressing this aspect of undergraduate medical education.