A new and unusual program at the UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center is training a variety of health-care professionals and students in providing terminal care. "When you've committed your life to curing patients and suddenly you're confronted with your own impotence in the face of a particular disease process, it's frightening and it's challenging," says program head Dr. Frederick Meyers. The West Coast Center for Palliative Education, the only program of its kind west of the Rocky Mountains, teaches practicing physicians and other health-care professionals as well as residents, interns, pharmacy students and medical students from all schools in the western United States. Since it began in March 1995, more than 50 professionals have been trained, and there's a waiting list for the eight slots that become available each month.