title: [Breaking bad news--experience and attitude of young physicians].
abstract: This survey reports the attitude among second year medical doctors towards giving patients bad news. The questionnaire contained a mixture of open and closed questions. The questionnaire was returned by 88/119 (74%). All doctors felt that a patient who suffers from a serious, incurable disease has the right to be told the diagnosis, 98% of the doctors had broken bad news-most of them had done it several times. More than 90% of the doctors judged that their knowledge concerning breaking bad news, communication and crisis- and grief-reactions was average or above, but less than 10% thought that their knowledge was adequate. All the responders wanted instructions on how to break bad news, but only 45% had received some.
authors.affiliation: Afdeling for Social Medicin, Københavns Universitet.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003142:Communication; D016638:Critical Illness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006117:Grief; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires