The Importance Of Breaking Bad News

Robert Buckman was the first researcher to define bad news in 1994.He defined bad news as any information which negatively alters one’s expectations for the future, this definition is one of the most famous and common definitions of bad news. According this definition any situation where there is either a feeling of no hope, a threat to a person's well-being, risk of altering an established lifestyle, or any a message which conveys to an individual fewer choices in his or her life is considered bad news (Arnold et al., 2010; Barnett, 2013) It also described as any information that leads to adverse changes in person's expectation about his present and future which means that, even if bad news exists, what is important is the perception of the individual ( Ferrario & Cremona, 2013). Any heath issue, even a common cold, has degree of bad news if it needs a visit to a clinic or alters plans for a few days. However, the kind of bad news that concerns healthcare professionals is usually associated with …show more content…
As breaking bad news is a process, a wider range of health care professionals, including nurses in this process (Pereira et al., 2013). Furthermore, nurses are involved in many supportive activities around breaking bad news as: evaluating needs for information, identifying and correcting misunderstanding, initiating discussion, obtaining and explaining complicated medical information and helping patients and relatives to cope with their emotional reactions. So, they are described as, "practical mangers" of the events which follow breaking bad news, and also clarify medical information for patients and their families. Thus, nurses have a key part to play in the process of breaking bad news (Warnock et al., 2010; Pereira et al.,