Carrillo ER, Contreras CNA, Remolina SM, Ramírez RFJ

Language: Spanish
References: 21
Page: 194-199
PDF size: 124.52 Kb.

ABSTRACT

Health care providers often encounter the need to convey “bad news”. We define “bad news” as something that alters in a drastic and negative way, patient and family expectative about their own future. Cultural and social status differences between patient and physician may represent additional difficulties to give bad news. This process requires a delicate interaction between physician, patient and families that creates anxiety among all. Ethics, human rights and from a legal standpoint, human beings have the right to communication. To know their own health status, diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic plan, including its own life plan after the disease process. As in other daily practice protocols to handle complex diseases, the oncologist Walter F. Baile, Robert Buckman and coworkers proposed a protocol to convey bad news. The same protocol can be applied to our own daily practice in every area of medicine. Our main fear as health providers confronting the Latin saying “primum non nocere” (first do no harm), is to induce pain with our words and actions, for that, is necessary to learn and develop skills in affective and effective communication. This review explores different aspects that can be internal or external to health providers and a series of guidelines to help giving bad news.

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