Influence of Personal Experiences of Medical Students on Their Assessment of Delivering Bad News

Agata Kotłowska, Julia Przeniosło, Krzysztof Sobczak (), Jan Plenikowski, Marcin Trzciński, Oliwia Lenkiewicz and Julia Lenkiewicz
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Agata Kotłowska: Faculty of Medicine, Student Scientific Circle of Medical Communication at the Medical University of Gdansk, 80-210 Gdansk, Poland
Julia Przeniosło: Faculty of Medicine, Student Scientific Circle of Medical Communication at the Medical University of Gdansk, 80-210 Gdansk, Poland
Krzysztof Sobczak: Department of Sociology of Medicine and Social Pathology, Medical University of Gdansk, 80-210 Gdansk, Poland
Jan Plenikowski: Faculty of Medicine, Student Scientific Circle of Medical Communication at the Medical University of Gdansk, 80-210 Gdansk, Poland
Marcin Trzciński: Faculty of Medicine, Student Scientific Circle of Medical Communication at the Medical University of Gdansk, 80-210 Gdansk, Poland
Oliwia Lenkiewicz: Faculty of Medicine, Student Scientific Circle of Medical Communication at the Medical University of Gdansk, 80-210 Gdansk, Poland
Julia Lenkiewicz: Faculty of Medicine, Student Scientific Circle of Medical Communication at the Medical University of Gdansk, 80-210 Gdansk, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-10

Abstract: Background: We aimed to identify which attitudes and emotions accompany latter-year medical students as they experience situations where bad news is communicated. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using the computer-assisted web interview (CAWI) methodology in a group of 321 fifth- and sixth-year medical students from 14 medical universities in Poland. Correlations were analyzed using Pearson’s χ 2 test. For the categorical variables, subject profiles were analyzed using K-means clustering. Results: Students’ self-assessments of their competence in delivering bad news (DBN) differed depending on the type of experience they had with it. More than half of the students had observed a situation of DBN (63.6%) and as many as 26.5% of the participants had received bad news themselves. These two groups were less likely to declare a lack of DBN-related skills (43.4% and 33.4%, respectively) than others. In this study, 9% of the students had personally delivered bad news. Only 13.4% of these students rated their DBN skills as insufficient. They were also the least likely to express concern regarding high levels of stress (29.6%) and anxiety (48%). Conclusions: The ability to personally deliver bad medical news to a patient was the most effective form of gaining experience in DBN. Being a bearer of bad news may help students develop their own strategies for coping with difficult emotions and develop their professional competences, leading to improved medical care and patient comfort.

Keywords: delivering bad news; diagnosis; truth disclosure; doctor–patient relationship; medical communication (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12040-:d:923037

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