Na passagem da vida para a morte: o estudante de medicina diante do diagnóstico de morte e da declaração de óbito.

Abstract

Many professions have death as their object, such as Medicine, in which one lives daily and intimately with death and, more than that, it is a one of the few professions that can witness the death process and influence directly and indirectly in its outcome. Recognizing death and attesting to it are medical assignments, both technically and ethically. The correct handling of death by the doctor is of fundamental importance for influencing negatively or positively various social and administrative spheres. OBJECTIVES: General - Study death, its diagnosis and ethical-legal management. Specific - Evaluate the knowledge about the diagnosis of clinical death and completion of the Certificate of death by medical students in the sixth year of training at the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG). METHODOLOGY: Study observational and cross-sectional, carried out through the application of questionnaires to 50 students regularly enrolled in the last year, 11th and 12th terms, of the course of medicine at the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), campus Campina Grande. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The students evaluated showed better performance in the correct completion and issuance of the death certificate when compared to the diagnosis of death.