Delivering Bad News
Must-know Strategies for these "Critical Conversations"
(Essential Skills for EVERY Clinician)

The manner in which difficult news is delivered to patients has a significant impact throughout their course of treatment. Delivering the news in a poor manner can destroy the patient-professional relationship, decrease compliance and compromise clinical outcomes. This session will help make the process of delivering difficult news … less difficult.

This content-rich session provides practical solutions to deliver bad news via a three-step approach to guide you in the process, including very detailed strategies that can be used in multiple clinical situations. Specific topics include: preparing your comments, setting the physical space, appropriate non-verbal communication, handling intense emotional reactions, and moving a patient to acceptance and action. Also discussed is what never to do! Many clinicians are utilizing techniques they think are effective, which are actually very damaging.

This program is not just for physicians! Every clinical professional, including nurses and technicians need to understand the process of delivering bad news. The physicians may often be the one delivering the news; however other clinical professionals are highly impacted by the news and must know how to deal with the repercussions of the news.

In this high-impact program, you will learn:

• The range of clinical issues that are considered bad news. Many clinicians destroy relationships with patients because they fail to understand how patients define bad news.
• An easy-to-implement three-step approach to deliver bad news in a caring and efficient manner.
• How to efficiently prepare to deliver the bad news, including what information is needed to share and planning for environmental factors.
• Precise language to use with a patient when delivering the news, including key words and phrases.  This program will also review what NEVER to say!
• How to manage patients after the news is delivered, including appropriate communication strategies.  Also included are methods of handling emotional patients in a caring and effective manner.

<< back to programs