==== Front Indian J Palliat CareIndian J Palliat CareIJPCIndian Journal of Palliative Care0973-10751998-3735Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd India IJPC-24-38810.4103/IJPC.IJPC_11_18Letters to EditorAn Internal Medicine Residents’ Perspective on End-of-life Discussions Ram Pradhum Horn Benjamin Siegel Arthur Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, USAAddress for correspondence: Dr. Pradhum Ram, 5501 Old York Road, Suite 363, Klein Building, Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA 19141, USA. E-mail: rampradhum@gmail.comJul-Sep 2018 24 3 388 389 Copyright: © 2018 Indian Journal of Palliative Care2018This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. ==== Body Sir, It is known that only around 20% of adults complete advance directives, and the majority do not discuss goals of care or have end-of-life discussions until they are hospitalized with a serious illness. The discussions of advanced directives should not start in the hospital setting; instead, primary care physicians should start these decisions in the outpatient setting. However, there are several barriers to this idealist approach, including, but not limited to history, religion, socialization, and reimbursement issues.[1] The ability and willingness to discuss goals of care and end-of-life decisions by physicians with families is an important yet undertaught area of medicine. A study from South East Asia showed that internal medicine residents are usually more comfortable and have the most confidence in discussing end-of-life care.[2] While the global applicability remains questionable, this is likely due to the fact that internal medicine residents treat patients with chronic disease more often, which usually require multiple family meetings and discussions over time.[2] In the community teaching hospital setting, predominantly in the intensive care unit due to aforementioned reasons, internal medicine residents are often the ones that lead the end-of-life discussions and goals of care with support from palliative care and chaplain services. A problem often encountered in this setting is that the patients are unable to make the decisions for themselves, which means that it ultimately falls to the next of kin. Patients typically never have end-of-life discussions with their family before a significant medical event, so it is difficult to know what the patient would want. This is why, it is important to educate patients and their families on the value of having these discussions at a time when the patient is healthy and for physicians to help patients complete advanced directives. Sadly, the majority of medical students do not participate in goals of care discussions, which is probably why the majority of physicians do not feel comfortable holding goals of care discussions in the outpatient setting. Most physicians are encouraged to discuss advanced care planning in patients who are terminally ill or have a life expectancy of < 1 year.[3] At the same time, it is of paramount importance to get palliative care involved earlier in the hospital course to help facilitate family discussions which could potentially reduce length and cost of hospital stay significantly.[4] In addition, medical students should undergo additional training with feedback from palliative care physicians not only on the importance of advanced directives but also on initiating and facilitating end-of-life decision-making with the hope that one day, the majority of patients that enter the hospital will have an advanced directive already completed and easily accessible. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest. ==== Refs REFERENCES 1 Crawley L Payne R Bolden J Payne T Washington P Williams S Palliative and end-of-life care in the African American community JAMA 2000 284 2518 21 11074786 2 Mohamed ZU Muhammed F Singh C Sudhakar A Experiences in end-of-life care in the Intensive Care Unit: A survey of resident physicians Indian J Crit Care Med 2016 20 459 64 27630457 3 Keating NL Landrum MB Rogers SO Jr Baum SK Virnig BA Huskamp HA Physician factors associated with discussions about end-of-life care Cancer 2010 116 998 1006 20066693 4 Starks H Wang S Farber S Owens DA Curtis JR Cost savings vary by length of stay for inpatients receiving palliative care consultation services J Palliat Med 2013 16 1215 20 24003991