What is the best way to break bad news? Some communication research suggests that clinicians should give a"warning shot" prior to giving the patient bad news. Something like "The news I have to share may be upsetting." The idea is that preparing the patient for the prospect of bad news allows the patient to better prepare for and process the information. If bad news is just sprung, the patient may not hear anything else after the upsetting news and may be too upset to talk about important issues such as next steps. But is it possible that classifying news as upsetting may be more upsetting than just breaking news to a patient without prior qualification? Rather than qualifying information beforehand, maybe clinicians should instead give patients time to process the information before moving on to the next topic.
What do you think? What is the role of the warning shot?
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