Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33233556›Full record

ArticleHealthcare (Basel, Switzerland)2020

Breaking Bad News, a Pertinent Yet Still an Overlooked Skill: An International Survey Study.

Abbas Alshami, Steven Douedi, America Avila-Ariyoshi, Mohammed Alazzawi, Swapnil Patel, Sharon Einav, Salim Surani, Joseph Varon

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
22citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

22 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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  4. In the end, it is the word that remains: communicating bad news in pediatric oncology.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026
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  17. Influence of Personal Experiences of Medical Students on Their Assessment of Delivering Bad News.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022
    Article
  18. Article
  19. Delivering Bad News: Self-Assessment and Educational Preferences of Medical Students.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022
    Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Abbas AlshamiDepartment of Medicine, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, NJ 07753, USA.
Steven DouediDepartment of Medicine, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, NJ 07753, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-5006-828X
America Avila-AriyoshiResearch Department, Dorrington Medical Associates, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Mohammed AlazzawiDepartment of Medicine, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, NJ 07753, USA.
Swapnil PatelDepartment of Medicine, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, NJ 07753, USA.
Sharon EinavShaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem 9103102, Israel.
Salim SuraniDepartment of Medicine, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, TX 77843, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-7105-4266
Joseph VaronDepartment of Pulmonary and Critical Care, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Delivering bad news to patients is a challenging yet impactful everyday task in clinical practice. Ideally, healthcare practitioners should receive formal training in implementing these protocols, practice in simulation environments, and real-time supervision with feedback. We aimed to investigate whether healthcare providers involved in delivering bad news have indeed received formal training to do so. We conducted a cross-sectional survey study that targeted all healthcare providers in the intensive care units of 174 institutions in 40 different countries. Participants included physicians, nurses, medical students, nursing students, pharmacists, respiratory technicians, and others. The survey tool was created, validated, and translated to the primary languages of these countries to overcome language barriers. A total of 10,106 surveys were collected. Only one third of participants indicated that they had received a formal training. Providers who had received formal training were more likely to deliver bad news than those who had not. Younger and less experienced providers tend to deliver bad news more than older, more experienced providers. The percentage of medical students who claimed they deliver bad news was comparable to that of physicians. Medical schools and post-graduate training programs are strongly encouraged to tackle this gap in medical education.

Indexed as

communicationethical issuesintensive care unitslife change eventsphysician-patient relationstruth disclosure

Identifiers

PMID33233556
PMCPMC7711660

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.