Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Psychology, health and illness
- Adolescent lifestyle
- Age and physical functioning
- Age and cognitive functioning
- Ageing and health
- Architecture and health
- Attributions and health
- Childhood influences on health
- Children's perceptions of illness and death
- Coping with bereavement
- Coping with chronic illness
- Coping with chronic pain
- Coping with death and dying
- Coping with stressful medical procedures
- Cultural and ethnic factors in health
- Delay in seeking help
- Diet and health
- Disability
- Emotional expression and health
- Expectations and health
- Gender issues and women's health
- The health belief model
- Health-related behaviours: common factors
- Hospitalization in adults
- Hospitalization in children
- Hostility and Type A behaviour in coronary artery disease
- Lay beliefs about health and illness
- Life events and health
- Men's health
- Noise: effects on health
- Pain: a multidimensional perspective
- Perceived control
- Personality and health
- Physical activity and health
- Placebos
- Psychoneuroimmunology
- Psychosomatics
- Quality of life
- Religion and health
- Risk perception and health behaviour
- Self-efficacy in health functioning
- Sexual risk behaviour
- Sleep and health
- Social support and health
- Socioeconomic status and health
- Stigma
- Stress and health
- Symptom perception
- Theory of planned behaviour
- Transtheoretical model of behaviour change
- Unemployment and health
- Brain imaging and function
- Communication assessment
- Coping assessment
- Diagnostic interviews and clinical practice
- Disability assessment
- Health cognition assessment
- Health status assessment
- Illness cognition assessment
- IQ testing
- Assessment of mood
- Neuropsychological assessment
- Neuropsychological assessment of attention and executive functioning
- Neuropsychological assessment of learning and memory
- Pain assessment
- Patient satisfaction assessment
- Psychoneuroimmunology assessments
- Qualitative assessment
- Quality of life assessment
- Social support assessment
- Stress assessment
- Behaviour therapy
- Biofeedback
- Cognitive behaviour therapy
- Community-based interventions
- Counselling
- Group therapy
- Health promotion
- Hypnosis
- Motivational interviewing
- Neuropsychological rehabilitation
- Pain management
- Physical activity interventions
- Psychodynamic psychotherapy
- Psychosocial care of the elderly
- Relaxation training
- Self-management interventions
- Social support interventions
- Stress management
- Worksite interventions
- Adherence to treatment
- Attitudes of health professionals
- Breaking bad news
- Burnout in health professionals
- Communicating risk
- Healthcare professional–patient communication
- Healthcare work environments
- Informed consent
- Interprofessional education in essence
- Medical decision-making
- Medical interviewing
- Patient-centred healthcare
- Patient safety and iatrogenesis
- Patient satisfaction
- Psychological support for healthcare professionals
- Reassurance
- Screening in healthcare: general issues
- Shiftwork and health
- Stress in health professionals
- Surgery
- Teaching communication skills
- Written communication
- Medical topics
- Index
- References
Breaking bad news
from Psychology, health and illness
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2014
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Psychology, health and illness
- Adolescent lifestyle
- Age and physical functioning
- Age and cognitive functioning
- Ageing and health
- Architecture and health
- Attributions and health
- Childhood influences on health
- Children's perceptions of illness and death
- Coping with bereavement
- Coping with chronic illness
- Coping with chronic pain
- Coping with death and dying
- Coping with stressful medical procedures
- Cultural and ethnic factors in health
- Delay in seeking help
- Diet and health
- Disability
- Emotional expression and health
- Expectations and health
- Gender issues and women's health
- The health belief model
- Health-related behaviours: common factors
- Hospitalization in adults
- Hospitalization in children
- Hostility and Type A behaviour in coronary artery disease
- Lay beliefs about health and illness
- Life events and health
- Men's health
- Noise: effects on health
- Pain: a multidimensional perspective
- Perceived control
- Personality and health
- Physical activity and health
- Placebos
- Psychoneuroimmunology
- Psychosomatics
- Quality of life
- Religion and health
- Risk perception and health behaviour
- Self-efficacy in health functioning
- Sexual risk behaviour
- Sleep and health
- Social support and health
- Socioeconomic status and health
- Stigma
- Stress and health
- Symptom perception
- Theory of planned behaviour
- Transtheoretical model of behaviour change
- Unemployment and health
- Brain imaging and function
- Communication assessment
- Coping assessment
- Diagnostic interviews and clinical practice
- Disability assessment
- Health cognition assessment
- Health status assessment
- Illness cognition assessment
- IQ testing
- Assessment of mood
- Neuropsychological assessment
- Neuropsychological assessment of attention and executive functioning
- Neuropsychological assessment of learning and memory
- Pain assessment
- Patient satisfaction assessment
- Psychoneuroimmunology assessments
- Qualitative assessment
- Quality of life assessment
- Social support assessment
- Stress assessment
- Behaviour therapy
- Biofeedback
- Cognitive behaviour therapy
- Community-based interventions
- Counselling
- Group therapy
- Health promotion
- Hypnosis
- Motivational interviewing
- Neuropsychological rehabilitation
- Pain management
- Physical activity interventions
- Psychodynamic psychotherapy
- Psychosocial care of the elderly
- Relaxation training
- Self-management interventions
- Social support interventions
- Stress management
- Worksite interventions
- Adherence to treatment
- Attitudes of health professionals
- Breaking bad news
- Burnout in health professionals
- Communicating risk
- Healthcare professional–patient communication
- Healthcare work environments
- Informed consent
- Interprofessional education in essence
- Medical decision-making
- Medical interviewing
- Patient-centred healthcare
- Patient safety and iatrogenesis
- Patient satisfaction
- Psychological support for healthcare professionals
- Reassurance
- Screening in healthcare: general issues
- Shiftwork and health
- Stress in health professionals
- Surgery
- Teaching communication skills
- Written communication
- Medical topics
- Index
- References
Summary
What constitutes ‘bad news’
Many healthcare professionals will find themselves in a situation where they have to break bad or difficult news to patients and/or their relatives. A broad definition of what constitutes bad news includes situations where there is a threat to a person's mental or physical wellbeing, a risk of upsetting an established lifestyle, or where a message is given which conveys to an individual fewer choices in his or her life (Ptacek & Eberhardt, 1996). This indicates that bad news contains an element of loss or anticipated loss and will, to a certain extent, be subjective. Generally, news of death, terminal illness or deformity constitute the more extreme situations, and will generally be accepted as ‘bad news’ for the recipient. However, news of chronic illnesses or the need for medical intervention, which at first glance would appear less disastrous, could for the recipient have far-reaching or negative implications for their personal or working life, or their hopes for the future.
The breaking of bad news is stressful for both the messenger and the recipient. Because the manner in which bad news is given will impact the recipient and the decisions he or she needs to make (e.g. Roberts et al., 1994), there has been increased emphasis over the last decades on teaching appropriate communications skills to healthcare professionals. Factors that may create barriers to breaking bad news appropriately are outlined in this chapter, followed by general guidelines on how to break bad news.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine , pp. 423 - 426Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
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