B, Dow boldt and D. Tamlyn Death education surveys of health-related faculties conducted in the United States over the last decade(Dickinson, Sumner, Durand, 1987; Dickinson, Sumner, Frederick, 1992)and in Canada( Caty Downe-Wamboldt, 1983)have found that the majority of professional schools provide students with some expo sure to content related to death and dying within required courses. Full courses on death and dying are generally electives taken by less than 25% of the health professions students in the United States(Dickinson et al, 1992). A multidisciplinary approach is frequently used; however, most schools tend to use pri marily professionals from their own academic disciplines to teach death and dying content. Dickinson et al.(1987)found that American nursing schools did not generally use physicians or pharmacists as instructors; but 19% of medical schools and 11% of harmacy colleges used nurses to teach death education classe Lectures and discussion formats were the most popular teaching approaches, and seminars were the least popular Candy and Sexton(1985), in a survey of health education departments in the United States, compared institutional and expert opinions regarding topics that were considered to be essen tial to death education courses. Both groups identified 12 essential topics, including cultural aspects, the dying process, euthanasia funerals/burials, the grief process, hospice, le gislation, gender dif ferences, preparation for death, suicide, terminal illness, and wills There was no consensus concerning the topics of death history, religion and death, out of body experiences, or ethnic group per ceptions In the United Kingdom, despite the existence of death edu ation content in many programs, medical and nursing stud have reported that their preparation to provide terminal care was inadequate(Doyle, 1987). Hospice staff have also noted that there was inadequate professional training in palliative care for all health professionals working with the dying (Doyle, 1987) The present in vestigation was designed to address the gap in the literature on the nature of formal death education within nursing and medical schools in Canada and the United Kingdom The purpose of this descriptive, exploratory study was to identify and describe the current availability of death education, includingDe ath ed u catio n sur ve ys o f h e alth -re late d facultie s co n d ucte d in th e Un ite d State s o ve r th e last d e c ad e ( Dic k in so n , Su m n e r, & Du r an d , 1987; Dic k in so n , Su m n e r, & Fr e d e ric k , 1992) an d in Can ad a ( Caty & Down e -Wam b o ld t, 1983) h ave f o u n d th at th e m ajority o f pro fe ssion al sch o ols p ro vide stud e n ts with so m e exp o￾su re to co n te n t re late d to d e ath an d d yin g with in re q u ire d co u rse s. Fu ll co u rse s o n d e ath an d d yin g ar e g e n e rally e le c tive s tak e n by le ss th an 25% o f th e h e alth p ro fe ssio n s stu d e n ts in th e Un ite d State s ( Dic k in so n e t a l., 1992) . A m u ltid is c ip lin ar y ap proach is fre que n tly use d; h owe ver, m ost sch o ols ten d to u se pri￾m arily p rofe ssion als fro m th e ir own acade m ic d iscip lin e s to te ach d e ath an d d yin g co n te n t. Dic k in so n e t al. ( 1987) f o u n d th at Am e ric an n u rsin g s ch o o ls d id n o t g e n e rally u se p h ysic ian s o r p h arm acists as in str uctors; bu t 19% of m e dical sch oo ls an d 11% o f p h arm acy co lle g e s u se d n u rse s to te ach d e ath e d u c atio n classe s. Le c ture s an d discussio n fo rm ats we re th e m o st p o p u lar te ach in g ap p roach e s, an d se m in ars we re th e le ast p op u lar. Tan d y an d Se x to n ( 1985) , in a su r ve y o f h e alth e d u c atio n d e p artm e n ts in th e Un ite d State s, co m p are d in stitu tio n al an d e xpe rt op in io n s re g ardin g top ics th at were co n side re d to be e ssen - tial to de ath e ducation cou rse s. Both g ro ups id en ti® e d 12 esse n tial to p ics, in c lu d in g cu ltu ral asp e c ts, th e d yin g p ro ce ss, e u th an asia, fun erals/ bu rials, th e g rie f pro cess, h o spice , le g islatio n , g en de r dif￾fe re n ce s, pre paratio n for de ath , suicid e, term in al illn e ss, an d wills. Th e re was n o co n se n su s co n c e r n in g th e to p ic s o f d e ath h isto r y, re lig io n an d de ath , o ut of bo d y exp e rie n ce s, o r e th n ic g ro up pe r￾c ep tion s. In th e Un ite d Kin g d o m , d e sp ite th e e xiste n c e o f d e ath e d u￾c atio n co n te n t in m an y p ro g ram s, m e d ical an d n u rsin g stu d e n ts h ave re po rted th at th e ir pre p aration to p ro vide te rm in al care was in ad e qu ate ( Doyle , 1987) . Ho spice staff h ave also n oted th at th e re was in ad e q u ate p ro f e ssio n a l tr ain in g in p alliative c are fo r all h e alth profe ssion als wo rk in g with th e d yin g ( Do yle , 1987) . Th e pre se n t in ve stig atio n was d e sign e d to ad d re ss th e g ap in th e lite r atu r e o n th e n atu re o f f o rm al d e ath e d u c atio n with in n u rsin g an d m e d ical sch oo ls in Can ada an d th e Un ite d Kin gdo m . Th e p u rp o se o f th is de scrip tive , e xplo rator y stud y was to id e n tify an d d e scribe th e curren t availability of de ath e du catio n , in clud in g 178 B . D o w n e-W am bold t a n d D . Ta m lyn