Telling another person that they cannot be cured from their illness and that their life will end in the foreseeable future is never an easy task, no matter how many times we have done it. However, we know that our patients expect us to be truthful with them and to answer their questions honestly and carefully. I would like to finish with this quote from Robert Buckman's recent editorial in the British Medical Journal
"It has been said that if the breaking of bad news is done badly, patients and their families (or often their lawyers) may never forgive us, but if it is done well they will never forget us. ... There are simple, practical techniques that we can learn and use to tell our patients the truth if they want to know, and we no longer have nay excuse for avoiding it."
References
1 Meredith C, Symonds P. Webster L, Lamont D, Pyper E, Gulls GR, Fallowfield L (1996). Information needs of cancer patients in West Scotland: cross sections survey of patients' views. British Medical Journal, 313, 724-6.
2 Buckman R (1993). Communication in palliative care: a practical guide, from Doyle D, Hanks GWC,
McDonald N (1993) Eds, The Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine, Chapter 2.5, 47-61.
3 Buckman R (1993). Communication in palliative care: a practical guide, from Doyle D, Hanks GWC,
McDonald N (1993) Eds, The Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine, Chapter 2.5, 47-61.
Faulkner A, Maguire P. Regnard C (1993). Breaking Bad News, from Regnard C, Hockley J (1995) Eds,
Flow diagrams in advanced cancer and other diseases, Chapter 22, 86-91.
Hunt M (1991). The truth about terminal cancer. Nursing, 4(40), 9-11.
4 Raudonis BM (1993). The meaning and impact of empathic relationships in hospice nursing. Cancer
Nursing, 16(4), 304-309 cited from Triplett JL (1969). Empathy is... Nursing Clinics of North America,
4, 673-681.
5 Buckman, R (1993). Communication in palliative care: a practical guide, from Doyle D, Hanks GWC,
McDonald N (1993) Eds, The Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine, Chapter 2.5, 47-61.
6 Hunt M (1991). The truth about terminal cancer. Nursing, 4(40), 9-11.
7 Buckman R (1996). Taking to patients about cancer. British Medical Journal, 313, 699-700.
Presentation for the Life Planning Centre in Tokyo, Japan, 23 February 1997,
