News Feature: Bad medicine

Delivering bad news in emergency care medicine

Forecasting is a strategy for delivering bad news and is compared to two other strategies, stalling and being blunt. Forecasting provides some warning that bad news is forthcoming without keeping the recipient in a state of indefinite suspense (stalling) or conveying the news abruptly (being blunt). Forecasting appears to be more effective than stalling or being blunt in helping a recipient to ...

A thousand years of pulmonary medicine: good news and bad.

I should like to start by thanking Professor Gibson and all members of the Programme Committee for asking me to give this Millennial Lecture. I am, of course, greatly honoured at having been chosen for this, a once every one-thousand years event. One of the things Professor Gibson refrained from saying in his overly flattering introduction is that I actually started my medical career back in th...

Communicating sad, bad, and difficult news in medicine.

In every medical specialty bad, sad, and difficult information must be given to patients and their families. An insensitive approach increases the distress of recipients of bad news, may exert a lasting impact on their ability to adapt and adjust, and can lead to anger and an increased risk of litigation. Many doctors also find these interactions stressful, and in the absence of much effective ...

hiv/aids good news and bad news

Breaking bad news.