Background: The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has been conducting public awareness surveys on medical care in the final stages of life since 1987. Though the importance of the medical care in the final stages is emphasized in the medical education in recent years, there is no research which specifically has investigated the consciousness of medical students. In this study, we conducted a survey of medical school freshmen’s consciousness of medical care in the final stage. Methods: A survey was conducted with a questionnaire in a sample of 137 freshmen of Teikyo University School of Medicine in 2018. The questionnaire formed by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare was partially applied in this questionnaire and it was an anonymous survey. Results: In terms of the place where they hope to stay, 80.4% of the participants hope to stay at home while 14.1% of them hope to stay at medical institutions under the condition of having terminal cancer but being able to take care of themselves. The ratio of the former group dropped to 42.9% while the latter increased to 45.2% when they need assistance in their daily lives. In the question of the treatment plan in the terminal cancer stage, the proportion of participants who take advantage of stomach fistula, ventilator, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation treatment was 19.5%, 29.7%, 41.4%, respectively. Though a similar tendency is observed in the result of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare survey in 2012, the participants have a stronger preference toward invasive medical procedures at the final stage of their lives. Conclusions: The freshmen of medical school who participates in this study accept invasive medical procedures at the final stage of their lives. The tendency is stronger than ordinary citizen consciousness conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in 2012.

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