Abstract
Background:Breaking bad and unpleasant news by physician to patient or his or her family is a key moment in communication between a physician and the patient. It is often necessary for physicians to breaking bad and unpleasant news to the patient or his or her family. The objective of this study was to evaluate the skill of general physicians in breaking bad and unpleasant news to the patient based on the SPIKES questionnaire in educational hospitals of Qom University of Medical Sciences in 2016.Methods:This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 200 general physicians. Convenient sampling method was used in this study. Data were collected using standard Spikes Questionnaire and data were analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistical tests through SPSSv21 software.Results:Most of the subjects were male (69.5%), married (85.1%), and had no history of receiving formal education about breaking bad news to the patient. The mean and standard deviation of the subjects were 37.43±4.02 years. The mean and standard deviation of the score of the skill of breaking bad news were 63.56 ± 6.51. While independent t test showed significant difference in mean and standard deviation of score of the skill of breaking bad news between the two groups (p 0.05). Moreover, using variance analysis, a significant difference was found in mean score of breaking bad news in different age groups with different employment history (p <0.05).Conclusion:The research results revealed that the skill level of the research samples was relatively at desirable level. Given the lack of receiving formal education by general physicians and the impact of breaking bad news from physician to patients and their caregivers on the type of relationship between the physician and the patient, it is recommended to put more emphasis on continuous education programs, designed especially for general physicians.
Highlights
Breaking bad news for patients is one of the major concerns of the physicians
The results showed that most of the subjects did not receive formal education on breaking the bad news and 83.3% provided bad news to their patients and their caretakers according to their personal experience
No study was found in line with the present study, but the research conducted by Rosin et al (2013) in order to determine and compare the role of health care staff in breaking the bad news to patients on 151 health care professionals (51 nurses, 38 physicians and 26 social workers) showed that in comparing the score obtained among three groups studied, physicians obtained higher score in domains of feeling responsibility in breaking the bad news to patients and their families
Summary
Breaking bad news for patients is one of the major concerns of the physicians. In all medical disciplines, it is sometimes necessary to give bad and unpleasant news to the patient or his or her family [1]. Physicians did not inform the patients on the severe and fatal diseases. It is often necessary for physicians to breaking bad and unpleasant news to the patient or his or her family. The objective of this study was to evaluate the skill of general physicians in breaking bad and unpleasant news to the patient based on the SPIKES questionnaire in educational hospitals of Qom University of Medical Sciences in 2016. The mean and standard deviation of the score of the skill of breaking bad news were 63.56 ± 6.51. While independent t test showed significant difference in mean and standard deviation of score of the skill of breaking bad news between the two groups (p 0.05). Given the lack of receiving formal education by general physicians and the impact of breaking bad news from physician to patients and their caregivers on the type of relationship between the physician and the patient, it is recommended to put more emphasis on continuous education programs, designed especially for general physicians
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