Introduction:

Teaching palliative care is essential in medical education. The pandemic forced the adaptation of classroom learning to technology-mediated learning, and it is not known whether the method would adequately provide students with the acquisition of competencies.

Objective:

To assess whether palliative care competencies are acquired by medical students enrolled in a technology-mediated palliative care discipline.

Methods:

Medical students enrolled in the technology-mediated palliative care discipline were invited to participate in the study. Over a seven-week period, the essential themes of palliative care were addressed. There were synchronous and asynchronous activities, directed study, problematization and simulation without real patients. The PalliComp questionnaire was used prior to the beginning of the teaching activities and at the end to assess the acquisition of competencies. The data obtained were submitted to statistical analysis.

Results:

Of the 45 students enrolled, 37 answered the PalliComp questionnaire before the course and 32 at the end. The sample consisted of 68.9% women and 31.1% men, with a mean age of 23.9 ± 3.5 years. The overall competency score increased from 63.9 ± 14.7 to 74.9 ± 14.6 (0.001) on a scale ranging from 0 to 100. Statistically significant increases were found in the competencies related to the concept of palliative care (<0.001), approach to physical symptoms (0.004), psycho-emotional (<0.001), family (0.03) and ethical decision-making (0.05). No difference was found in the competencies of social approach (0.07), spiritual (0.13), teamwork (0.67), communication (1.00) and self-development (0.13). Conclusion: A general acquisition of competencies in palliative care was verified among medical students and the technology-mediated learning strategy in a specific discipline proved to be valid.

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