CHALLENGES OF BAD NEWS COMMUNICATION IN MEDICAL PRACTICE AND POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY
breaking bad news, hospital service, doctors, psychology
The professional competence of physicians includes the development of communication skills in the interaction with users, family members, and other members of the multiprofessional team. In this context, the communication of bad news requires specific skills and tends to generate anxiety, fears, and reflections about finitude and the meaning of life. This study aims to investigate the challenges present in the process of communicating bad news according to the experiences of physicians from different specialties and to verify their perceptions about the factors that can facilitate this process, including the support of psychology professionals. To this end, a descriptive quanti-qualitative methodology will be used. We intend to have the participation of 30 doctors who work in general hospitals in the public and private sectors in the state of Rio de Janeiro, who will be invited to answer, online, a self-administered questionnaire prepared for the purposes of the research. The data obtained will be treated by means of descriptive statistical analysis or, in the case of open questions, will be categorized based on Bardin's Content Analysis. Considering that the impact of bad news on the individual/family is related to the way they are announced, it is important to know the difficulties of doctors facing the demands and the complexity of this task, in order to subsidize professional training courses in the area.