Delivering Bad News: Self-Assessment and Educational Preferences of Medical Students

Background: Numerous reports indicate the educational deficiencies of medical students in delivering bad-news-related skills. Evaluation of the performance of training programs in this area should be one of the key components of the educational process. The purpose of this study was to analyze medical students’ preferences and educational needs regarding DBN (delivering bad news). The effect of clinical experience on the self-assessment of skills was analyzed. Methods: The quantitative survey was conducted using the CAWI technique. The study involved 321 fifth- and sixth-year medical students from 14 medical universities in Poland. Pearson’s χ(2) test was used for statistical analysis. The profile of respondents for categorical variables was determined by KMeans analysis. Results: As many as 75.1% of students revealed that they did not feel sufficiently prepared for DBN. Only 18.7% reported having adequate competence in this area. More than half of the inquired students (63.6%) witnessed a situation during their clinical practice in which a physician provided a patient with information about an unfavorable diagnosis. These students were less likely to declare that they could not deliver BN (43.4%) than students who had no such experience (58.2%). As many as 86.3% of the respondents reported the need for more time in DBN skills training. Students mostly preferred active teaching methods. Conclusions: Understanding students’ learning needs and preferences can help medical schools optimize their education programs to develop DBN-related competencies.