[Breaking bad news--experience and attitude of young physicians]

This survey reports the attitude among second year medical doctors towards giving patients bad news. The questionnaire contained a mixture of open and closed questions. The questionnaire was returned by 88/119 (74%). All doctors felt that a patient who suffers from a serious, incurable disease has the right to be told the diagnosis, 98% of the doctors had broken bad news-most of them had done it several times. More than 90% of the doctors judged that their knowledge concerning breaking bad news, communication and crisis- and grief-reactions was average or above, but less than 10% thought that their knowledge was adequate. All the responders wanted instructions on how to break bad news, but only 45% had received some.