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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Ibnosina Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences 2021; 13(02): 84-90
DOI: 10.4103/ijmbs.ijmbs_31_21
Practice Point

Let's sit down and talk: The art of breaking bad news

Ali Ghellai
1   Tripoli Cancer Center, Tripoli
,
Kafia Elhafi
2   Tripoli University Faculty of Medicine, Tripoli
,
Maram Ghellai
3   Arden University, England
,
Mamoon Ghellai
2   Tripoli University Faculty of Medicine, Tripoli
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Physicians often are uncomfortable when communicating bad or difficult news. In the absence of much effective training, many doctors find that breaking bad news is one of the most difficult, demanding, and stressful tasks. A significantly negative relationship can form between the patient and their medical staff if poor communication is used. Most patients want the truth, but how bad news is delivered can substantially influence a patient's emotions, satisfaction, subsequent psychological adjustments, and attitudes toward treatment. Moreover, values in certain cultures can become barriers that can limit or pressure a physician in ethically approaching the patient. Disclosing bad news is a complex communicational task that requires time, compassion, and empathy. Although breaking bad news will never be easy, communicating well is a skill that can be learned. The SPIKES protocol provides a simple and easily learnable strategy for communicating bad news.

Key-words:

Breaking bad news - communication skills - empathy - SPIKES protocol

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.




Publication History

Received: 12 May 2021

Accepted: 27 May 2021

Article published online:
14 July 2022

© 2021. The Libyan Authority of Scientific Research and Technologyand the Libyan Biotechnology Research Center. All rights reserved. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License,permitting copying and reproductionso long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, oradapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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