Des externes dans une chambre mortuaire, une expérience atypique ?

The mobile palliative care team of the centre hospitalier universitaire de Rennes tried an innovative educational experience. Indeed, it offers hospital medical students a tour of the hospital mortuary. The main objective of this visit is to provide students with a practical education answering their questions on the roles and tasks of this structure, the administrative framework surrounding death, and the preparation for family support. The assumption underlying this experience is that students are more receptive to teaching practice in real environment rather than theoretical teaching on the topic (e.g., lectures in an amphitheatre). This assumption seems to be true. In addition, this work allows to highlight early student awareness to the issue of death, and thereby the issue of finiteness of human life or the limits of medicine. This element seems to find a full justification in both the theoretical medical studies focused on the omnipotence of curative care but also in a society struggling against death and its reality.