Abstracts by keywords: perceived safety
Delivering bad news poses a special challenge for every doctor. We would like to argue pointedly that a doctor who has mastered the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses but is not able to convey his sympathy and offer of support to the patient is one not fulfilling a significant part of his professional duties. The reality of everyday medical practice and clinic shows, however, that the doctor can hardly find the time required to let the person seeking help speak out and to translate the patient's problem into a billable format. This medical limitation is all the more critical given that numerous studies have shown that professional doctor-patient communication has a positive effect on the success of care (1,2). Placebo research also shows that everything the doctor does in interaction with the patient has a therapeutic effect, including communication in particular (3). The “perception of life-changing diagnoses by patients and their relatives” has rarely been examined through surveys. For them, the transmission of bad news is an exceptional psychological situation that requires special attention and mindfulness (3, 4). One of the first surveys on the subject was conducted among Iranian nurses, which also included the transmission of cancer diagnoses (5). With the present survey we want to show that ultimately the perception of the conversation by the patient and/or his relatives and not the conversation itself should be the indicator for the value of the conversation.