TY - JOUR
T1 - Health professionals’ perceptions of breaking bad news
AU - Dickson, David
AU - Hargie, Owen
AU - Brunger, Karen
AU - Stapleton, Karyn
PY - 2002
Y1 - 2002
N2 - The growth of the “patient-centred” approach to health care has highlighted the importance of quality communication practices. One area that remains problematic, however, is the process of breaking bad news to patients and/or relatives. Hence, there have been calls for more research and training in this domain. Reports the findings of a study that used the critical incident technique to explore the breaking bad news encounter from the perspective of the health care practitioner. In total 33 senior medical and nursing staff reported on situations in which they described specific, vividly recalled, experiences of both “effective” and “ineffective” bad news delivery. These reported incidents were content analysed and a range of key dimensions was identified for both effective and ineffective experiences. Interpersonal communication skills emerged as particularly salient factors and these are discussed in detail, together with implications for future research and training.
AB - The growth of the “patient-centred” approach to health care has highlighted the importance of quality communication practices. One area that remains problematic, however, is the process of breaking bad news to patients and/or relatives. Hence, there have been calls for more research and training in this domain. Reports the findings of a study that used the critical incident technique to explore the breaking bad news encounter from the perspective of the health care practitioner. In total 33 senior medical and nursing staff reported on situations in which they described specific, vividly recalled, experiences of both “effective” and “ineffective” bad news delivery. These reported incidents were content analysed and a range of key dimensions was identified for both effective and ineffective experiences. Interpersonal communication skills emerged as particularly salient factors and these are discussed in detail, together with implications for future research and training.
U2 - 10.1108/09526860210448492
DO - 10.1108/09526860210448492
M3 - Article
VL - 15
SP - 324
EP - 336
JO - International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance
JF - International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance
SN - 0952-6862
IS - 7
ER -