Health professionals’ perceptions of breaking bad news
International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance
ISSN: 0952-6862
Article publication date: 1 December 2002
Abstract
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.
Keywords
Citation
Dickson, D., Hargie, O., Brunger, K. and Stapleton, K. (2002), "Health professionals’ perceptions of breaking bad news", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 15 No. 7, pp. 324-336. https://doi.org/10.1108/09526860210448492
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Limited