TY - JOUR
T1 - Barriers and facilitating communication skills for breaking bad news
T2 - From the specialists' practice perspective
AU - Payán, Enna Catalina
AU - Montoya, David Andrés
AU - Vargas, John Jaíro
AU - Vélez, Maria Clara
AU - Castaño, Alfonso
AU - Krikorian, Alicia
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Introduction: Breaking bad news is one of a physician's most difficult duties. There are several studies related to the patient's needs, but few reflect on the doctors' experience. Materials and method: A descriptive, cross-sectional research was carried out to study issues related to the process of delivering bad news which might act as barriers and facilitating skills from the doctor's point of view. These issues were identified through a self-administered survey. Results: Participant doctors use different strategies to communicate bad news to their patients. Examples of these strategies are: to be familiar with the patients' medical history, to ensure that there is enough time, to know the patient's caregivers and/or relatives, to determine the patient's level of knowledge about his/her condition, to use non-technical words, to give information in small pieces, to assess the patient's understanding, to devise a joint action plan, among others. Conclusion: The communication barriers that were identified focused on the emotional issues of the communication process, particularly those related to the recognition of own emotions, and the limited training about communication strategies available to doctors. Consequently, there is a need to implement training programs that provide doctors with tools to facilitate the bad news communication process.
AB - Introduction: Breaking bad news is one of a physician's most difficult duties. There are several studies related to the patient's needs, but few reflect on the doctors' experience. Materials and method: A descriptive, cross-sectional research was carried out to study issues related to the process of delivering bad news which might act as barriers and facilitating skills from the doctor's point of view. These issues were identified through a self-administered survey. Results: Participant doctors use different strategies to communicate bad news to their patients. Examples of these strategies are: to be familiar with the patients' medical history, to ensure that there is enough time, to know the patient's caregivers and/or relatives, to determine the patient's level of knowledge about his/her condition, to use non-technical words, to give information in small pieces, to assess the patient's understanding, to devise a joint action plan, among others. Conclusion: The communication barriers that were identified focused on the emotional issues of the communication process, particularly those related to the recognition of own emotions, and the limited training about communication strategies available to doctors. Consequently, there is a need to implement training programs that provide doctors with tools to facilitate the bad news communication process.
KW - Barriers
KW - Effective communication skills
KW - Physician-patient communication
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=68449088120&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Artículo en revista científica indexada
AN - SCOPUS:68449088120
SN - 1657-9534
VL - 40
SP - 158
EP - 166
JO - Colombia Medica
JF - Colombia Medica
IS - 2
ER -