A. Wass nursing schools had no plans to offer or expand death education. Time constraints, no need, and limited faculty resources were the main expla nations given(Dickinson, Sumner, Frederick, 1992, Dickinson Mermann, 1996). Serious inadequacies in palliative care education in the United Kingdom have been reported as well. Surveys showed th average medical student received approximately 6 hours of death related instruction, and at best, 20 hours in a 5-year medical curriculum (Doyle, 1991 ). Surveying nursing and medical school faculties in Canada and the United Kingdom, Downe-Wambow Tamlyn(1997)reported results similar to those by Dickinson for the United States. Death educa- tion was included in most programs, mostly integrated into regular cur- ricular offerings or offered as an elective, and only a small minority required a full course. Nursing programs in both countries provided a broader range of topics and allocated a greater number of hours to class and clinical sessions than did programs in medicine which focused marily on pain control/hospice care and ethical/legal issues. In both countries. the theorist most often discussed in death education was Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. Death education content was taught primarily by faculty members of the respective disciplines, except for the United States medical programs in which half the teaching was provided by other disciplines, such as psychiatrists, social workers, and nurses (Dickinson et al., 1992) Content analysis of professional textbooks further indicated the se ous neglect of care for dying patients. An examination of 50 best-selling medical textbooks in multiple specialties in terms of content in 13 end- of-life domains, found that with few exceptions (e.g, family medicine, geriatrics), content in end-of-life care is minimal or absent(Rabow et al., 2000). Nursing textbooks have been found similarly deficient Examination of 50 major textbooks used in nursing schools on 9 essen- tial content areas in end-of-life care showed. overall. less than 2% of he content was devoted to end-of-life care(Ferrel, Virani,& Grant, 1999) Paramedics are among other professionals that routinely work in death-related situations and are often first-line respondents to families in distress and grief. The literature is scant on death education for this group. In a national survey of paramedic programs, Smith and walz (1995) reported that nearly all programs offered some death education that is integrated into their curricula and only a small fraction offered a separate course. The didactic method of instruction was most frequentlynursing schools had no plans to offer or expand death education. Time constraints, no need, and limited faculty resources were the main expla￾nations given (Dickinson, Sumner, & Frederick, 1992; Dickinson & Mermann, 1996). Serious inadequacies in palliative care education in the United Kingdom have been reported as well. Surveys showed the average medical student received approximately 6 hours of death￾related instruction, and at best, 20 hours in a 5-year medical curriculum (Doyle,1991). Surveying nursing and medical school faculties in Canada and the United Kingdom, Downe-Wambow & Tamlyn (1997) reported results similar to those by Dickinson for the United States. Death educa￾tion was included in most programs, mostly integrated into regular cur￾ricular offerings or offered as an elective, and only a small minority required a full course. Nursing programs in both countries provided a broader range of topics and allocated a greater number of hours to class and clinical sessions than did programs in medicine which focused pri￾marily on pain control/hospice care and ethical/legal issues. In both countries, the theorist most often discussed in death education was Elizabeth Kˇbler-Ross. Death education content was taught primarily by faculty members of the respective disciplines, except for the United States medical programs in which half the teaching was provided by other disciplines, such as psychiatrists, social workers, and nurses (Dickinson et al., 1992). Content analysis of professional textbooks further indicated the ser￾ious neglect of care for dying patients. An examination of 50 best-selling medical textbooks in multiple specialties in terms of content in 13 end￾of-life domains, found that with few exceptions (e.g., family medicine, geriatrics), content in end-of-life care is minimal or absent (Rabow et al., 2000). Nursing textbooks have been found similarly deficient. Examination of 50 major textbooks used in nursing schools on 9 essen￾tial content areas in end-of-life care showed, overall, less than 2% of the content was devoted to end-of-life care (Ferrel, Virani, & Grant, 1999). Paramedics are among other professionals that routinely work in death-related situations and are often first-line respondents to families in distress and grief. The literature is scant on death education for this group. In a national survey of paramedic programs, Smith and Walz (1995) reported that nearly all programs offered some death education that is integrated into their curricula and only a small fraction offered a separate course.The didactic method of instruction was most frequently 294 H. Wass