Breaking bad news: impact of a continuing medical education workshop

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the impact of an interactive continuing medical education workshop designed to help physicians in breaking bad news to their patients.

Methodology: Analysis of post-workshop questionnaires from 539 physicians assessing the retention of the key concepts and the perception of the potential impact of the workshop on their practice immediately after the workshop and six months later.

Results: The most significant concepts retained by the respondents are: the need to take into consideration the whole patient (42.7% post-workshop and 45.6% of follow-up responses), the need to be prepared for the consultation (11.6% and 15%), the importance of better guiding the interview (18.8% and 13.6%), and the value of taking more time during the consultation (5.8% and 8.3%). Analysis of paired responses on the post-workshop and the follow-up questionnaires shows that 35% of the concepts retained are identical.

Conclusion: The majority of physicians retained the key concepts, both immediately following the workshop and in the longer term.