Abstract: Objective To study the current status of hospice care education in Chinese medical colleges and put forward some suggestions for the future of hospice care education in our country through investigation of hospice care education in six medical colleges and universities in Shandong province. Methods Using cluster sampling, 600 on-campus college students in Shandong were selected and they were investigated with questionnaires. Results Nearly 86.6% of the students had hospice care related courses and 13.4% of the students did not offer hospice care course. Teaching methods mainly based on classroom instruction and performance evaluation for a closed book exam, thus students were generally lack of hospice care skills. Conclusion Hospice care education in our country is still to be further popularized and improved.

Key words: medical students, hospice care, education, death