Does emotional intelligence predict breaking bad news skills in pediatric interns? A pilot study.
BACKGROUND
While both patients and physicians identify communication of bad news as an area of great challenge, the factors underlying this often complex task remain largely unknown. Emotional intelligence (EI) has been positively correlated with good general communication skills and successful leadership, but there is no literature relating EI to the delivery of bad news.


OBJECTIVE
Our objectives were to determine: 1) performance of first-year pediatric residents in the delivery of bad news in a standardized patient (SP) setting; and 2) the role of EI in these assessments. Our hypothesis was that pediatric trainees with higher EI would demonstrate more advanced skills in this communication task.


METHODS
Forty first-year residents participated. Skill in bad news delivery was assessed via SP encounters using a previously published assessment tool (GRIEV_ING Death Notification Protocol). Residents completed the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI) as a measure of EI.


RESULTS
Residents scored poorly on bad news delivery skills but scored well on EI. Intraclass correlation coefficients indicated moderate to substantial inter-rater reliability among raters using the delivering bad news assessment tool. However, no correlation was found between bad news delivery performance and EI.


CONCLUSIONS
We concluded that first-year pediatric residents have inadequate skills in the delivery of bad news. In addition, our data suggest that higher EI alone is not sufficient to effectively deliver death news and more robust skill training is necessary for residents to gain competence and acquire mastery in this important communication domain.
Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA; suzanne.reed@nationwidechildrens.org.
Suzanne
S
Reed
Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA.
Karyn
K
Kassis
Office of Evaluation, Curricular Research and Development, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, USA.
Rollin
R
Nagel
Office of Evaluation, Curricular Research and Development, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, USA.
Nicole
N
Verbeck
Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA.
John D
JD
Mahan
Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA.
Richard
R
Shell
D003142:Communication; D056348:Emotional Intelligence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D016544:Patient Simulation; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000193:education*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
breaking bad news; emotional intelligence; pediatrics