Breaking bad news to cancer patients and their families: Attitudes toward death among Turkish physicians and their communication styles

Abstract

Objectives:

To investigate how Turkish oncologists’ attitudes toward death influence their emotional states, outlooks, and communication styles when breaking bad news to cancer patients and/or their families.

Design:

Cross-sectional study using self-completed questionnaires.

Methods:

The study sample consisted of 35 physicians working at an oncology department. Physicians completed a quantitative one-time survey developed by the authors and the Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R).

Results:

Thirty-one physicians completed the survey and the DAP-R. A mean of 13.39 ± 8.82 minutes was allocated for breaking bad news; 87.1% of the participants avoided using the word “cancer” and 42% avoided using the word “death”. The attitudes characterized by “death avoidance” and “fear of death” were found to be related to the emotional difficulty experienced by the physicians, and were also associated with less eye contact with the patient, and less attention paid to the language used while breaking bad news.

Conclusions and implications:

It is important for physicians to be aware of how their attitudes toward death affect their communication with patients during bad news. They should be provided in-service professional education, and therapeutic support.

Keywords:

• Attitude toward death
• breaking bad news
• communication style
• oncologist
• psycho-oncology

Acknowledgments

The researchers thank all the doctors who took the time and participated in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Data collection was initiated after approval was granted by the local ethics committee of the Oncology Institute Academic Council (no: 62883553-604.01.01). The participants were informed about the study, and they have consent before the questionnaire and scale were delivered. This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (revised October 2000).