Behavioral Patterns in Breaking Bad News Communication: An Ethnographic Study with Hematologists

Giovanna Artioli, Luca Ghirotto, Sara Alquati and Silvia Tanzi
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Giovanna Artioli: Palliative Care Unit, Azienda USL-IRCCS di Reggio Emilia, 42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy
Luca Ghirotto: Qualitative Research Unit, Azienda USL-IRCCS di Reggio Emilia, 42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy
Sara Alquati: Palliative Care Unit, Azienda USL-IRCCS di Reggio Emilia, 42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy
Silvia Tanzi: Palliative Care Unit, Azienda USL-IRCCS di Reggio Emilia, 42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 5, 1-15

Abstract: Hematologists adequately disclosing bad news is a critical point precluding patient-centered communication. Specific courses on communication for hematologists seem to be rare, as well as research exploring their communicative skills and patterns. We aim at describing the hematologists’ behavior during difficult conversations to account for behavioral patterns in communication and provide new insights regarding teaching skills to communicate bad news. We employed a focused visual ethnography to answer the following research: “what are hematologists’ behavioral patterns in communicating bad news to patients and families?” The collected data included (1) video recordings, (2) observational field notes, (3) interviews with hematologists. The analysis highlighted four patterns: (1) a technical-defensive pattern, (2) an authoritative pattern, (3) a relational-recursive pattern, and (4) a compassionate sharing pattern. Hematologists seem to have difficulty expressing compassionate caring and empathetic comprehension. Communication skills remain a challenge for hematologists. The study of behavioral patterns can lead to increasingly targeted training interventions for this specific learner population.

Keywords: bad news communication; palliative care; training; ethnography (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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