Death education for medical students is a newly developing aspect of the medical curriculum. Medical death educators must make an attempt to provide medical students with clinical exposure to dying patients and their families. A one-to-one relationship is one vehicle for such exposure. This paper discusses an alternative vehicle, that of assigning medical students to “on call” clergy. The on-call clergy help cope with crises that arise in the hospital and counsel dying patients and their families. The students gain clinical experience through the tutelage of the clergy. The reactions of the students are discussed and the mechanics of the on-call program are presented.
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