Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 10, 2026
11:13
The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
Review and commentary: two studies regarding giving "bad news"
Pediatric Nursing
|March 23, 1999
Summary
Delivering a child's chronic illness diagnosis requires careful communication. Key elements include in-person meetings, empathy, and clear language to support parental understanding and emotional needs.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric healthcare communication
- Family-centered care
Background:
- Informing parents about a child's chronic illness or disability is challenging.
- Effective communication is crucial for parental adjustment and understanding.
Purpose of the Study:
- To synthesize best practices for informing parents about a child's diagnosis.
- To identify key considerations for improving the 'informing interview' process.
Main Methods:
- Review of two studies on parental reactions to the informing interview.
- Analysis of conventional and additional considerations for effective communication.
Main Results:
- Essential elements include parental presence, early notification, clear language, and professional empathy.
- Additional factors: in-person meetings, private settings, discussing strengths/limitations, and individualized approaches.
- Cross-cultural factors necessitate attention to language, diagnosis interpretation, and treatment preferences.
Conclusions:
- Nurses must evaluate the effectiveness of the informing interview based on family needs.
- Implementing these considerations enhances the informing interview process for families.
- Tailoring communication and information is vital for supporting families facing a child's diagnosis.
Related Concept Videos
02:07Blind Procedures
Ideally, the people who observe and record the children’s behavior are unaware of who was assigned to the experimental or control group, in order to control for experimenter bias. Experimenter bias refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study. Remember, conducting an experiment requires a lot of planning, and the people involved in the research project have a vested interest in supporting their hypotheses. If the observers knew which child was...
03:26Framing Effects
Information is everywhere and its presentation—such as how and when items are presented—can impact our perceptions and decisions surrounding the info. This broad concept umbrellas framing effects—influences that occur due to the way information is framed in its appearance, whether it’s purely the order or the specific wording of a message. Let’s take a look at numerous ways in which two versions of something can objectively say the same thing, yet we respond in different ways based on the...
01:04Social Facilitation
Not all intergroup interactions lead to negative outcomes. Sometimes, being in a group situation can improve performance. Social facilitation occurs when an individual performs better when an audience is watching than when the individual performs the behavior alone. This typically occurs when people are performing a task for which they are skilled.
01:15Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch
The history of therapeutic communication can be traced back to Florence Nightingale, who emphasized the importance of developing trusting relationships with patients. She taught that the presence of nurses with patients results in therapeutic healing.
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...
01:21Barriers to Effective Communication II
The barriers to effective communication also include cultural barriers, semantic barriers, gender barriers, and time constraints.
Cultural barriers:
Differences in values, beliefs, religion, knowledge, and tradition can significantly impact communication. Awareness of nonverbal cues is critical, especially when conversing with a patient from a different culture. What appears appropriate in one culture may be inappropriate in another.
Semantic barriers:
As a result of their tendency to use...
Cultural barriers:
Differences in values, beliefs, religion, knowledge, and tradition can significantly impact communication. Awareness of nonverbal cues is critical, especially when conversing with a patient from a different culture. What appears appropriate in one culture may be inappropriate in another.
Semantic barriers:
As a result of their tendency to use...
01:18Negative and Positive Feedback
Animal organs and organ systems constantly adjust to internal and external changes through a process called homeostasis ("steady state"). Examples of these changes include regulation of the level of glucose or calcium in the blood or internal responses to external temperatures. Homeostasis requires maintaining an internal dynamic equilibrium: