How to Break Bad News: A Guide for Health Care Professionals - Paperback

by Robert Buckman (Author)

Based on Buckman's award-winning training videos and Kason's courses on interviewing skills for medical students, this volume is an indispensable aid for doctors, nurses, psychotherapists, social workers, and all those in related fields.

For many health care professionals and social service providers, the hardest part of the job is breaking bad news. The news may be about a condition that is life-threatening (such as cancer or AIDS), disabling (such as multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis), or embarrassing (such as genital herpes). To date medical education has done little to train practitioners in coping with such situations. With this guide Robert Buckman and Yvonne Kason provide help.

Using plain, intelligible language they outline the basic principles of breaking bad new and present a technique, or protocol, that can be easily learned. It draws on listening and interviewing skills that consider such factors as how much the patient knows and/or wants to know; how to identify the patient's agenda and understanding, and how to respond to his or her feelings about the information. They also discuss reactions of family and friends and of other members of the health care team.

Back Jacket

This book teaches doctors how to do effectively what many do poorly-communicate bad news to their patients. What the patient hears and understands, how the patient reacts and integrates the bad news, depends on how the doctor conveys it. This book teaches strategies, techniques, and responses that improve doctor patient relationships.

Author Biography

Dr. Robert Buckman (1948-2011) was a medical cancer specialist and the author of I Don't Know What to Say: How to Help and Support Someone Who Is Dying, and What You Really Need to Know about Cancer: A Comprehensive Guide for Patients and Their Families.