[A structured course for primary care physicians on breaking bad news]

Physicians are frequently required to break bad news to their patients. Previous research has shown that inconvenience, incompetence, and difficulty in dealing with patients' feelings are the main complaints expressed by physicians after such an encounter. Current educational programs dealing with breaking bad news are usually short, given in lecture format, and are inadequate in addressing essential issues such as knowledge, personal beliefs and attitudes, and previous personal experiences of physicians in such situations. In the past 8 years our Dept. of Family Medicine has implemented a course in breaking bad news that addresses these issues. A senior family practitioner and a medical social worker conduct 14 sessions of discussions and role-playing for small groups of residents and primary care physicians. The program is based on: theory dealing with methods of managing stress and crisis intervention, clarifying personal attitudes, discussions of previous personal encounters of the participants, various modalities of communication, methods of addressing patients' feelings and emotions, and coping with the emotions of the one breaking the bad news. On a 1-5 Likert scale questionnaire the course received an overall score of 4.47 (SD 0.51). Participants noted that they gained relevant communication skills for future patient encounters. A reliable examination of practitioners' competence in breaking bad news is mandatory in order to assess the efficiency of such courses.