Breaking Bad News Skills of Doctors and Residents in the Surgical Setting

October 4, 2024 updated by: Enrique Carrero, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona

Breaking Bad News Skills of Doctors and Residents in Anesthesia and Surgical Specialties in Spain: a Cross-sectional Survey

Breaking bad news is a very stressful and difficult situation for health care professionals, especially clinical doctors and surgeons. Acquiring skills for this sort of communication is very important due to the large volume of times that these professionals will have to deal with it and because it can affect the doctor-patient relationship forever.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the skill of surgeons and residents in surgical specialties in breaking bad news to patients and families across Spanish hospitals. This will be done by analyzing the subjects in terms of their knowledge and experience using a specialized questionnaire based on breaking bad news protocol, designed in the "Hospital Sant Joan de Déu" Children's hospital in Barcelona.

Study Overview

Status

Enrolling by invitation

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

50

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Spain
      • Barcelona, Spain, 08036
        • Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Hospital Uiversitari Mútua de Terrassa

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Residents and Doctors specialized in surgical specialties or anesthesiology.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

- Doctors working in the Surgical Setting that accept and answer the specialized questionnaire.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Questionnaire answered out of the time-frame
  • Incomplete questionnaires

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Anesthesiology
Other: Breaking bad news skills
Communication skills analyzed by a specialized questionnaire designed from a Breaking bad news protocol developed in 2018-2019 in Barcelona.
Surgical specialties
Other: Breaking bad news skills
Communication skills analyzed by a specialized questionnaire designed from a Breaking bad news protocol developed in 2018-2019 in Barcelona.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of times having to communicate a bad new in the last year.
Time Frame: Two months
Question on our questionnaire. The answer will be a number, expected to be from 0 to 200, approximately.
Two months
Number of hours in training in communication and breaking bad news skills.
Time Frame: Two months
Question on our questionnaire. The answer will be the number of hours of professional training in the specific field of communication to patients.
Two months
Self-evaluation of the skills in breaking bad news and their self-perceived quality.
Time Frame: Two months

In the self-administered questionnaire, 21 questions reflect specific and important items in communication designed from "La Primera notícia", a Breaking bad news protocol designed I the pediatric hospital "Hospital Sant Joan de Déu" in Barcelona.

Data will be analyzed using GraphPad.
Two months
Knowledge of Second victim concept
Time Frame: Two months
Direct question in our questionnaire: we ask the health-care professionals to define the Second victim concept.
Two months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Where have the professionals acquired their skills in breaking bad news if they have not taken a training program?
Time Frame: Two months

Question on our questionnaire. Possible answers are:

  • With the observation of peers and seniors.
  • Studying by themselves from books and papers.
  • Studying by themselves from videos and other internet content.
  • With the experience of years of working.
Two months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Hospital Clinic of Barcelona

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

March 16, 2020

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2025

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 11, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 13, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

March 16, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

October 8, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 4, 2024

Last Verified

October 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • BBNS-SS

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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