Clinician's Practice and Perception of Disclosure Model for Breaking Bad News to Breast Cancer Patients

Physicians’ beliefs about disclosure manner and their ethical attitude for telling the truth is an important issue in patient-physician interaction. The aim of this study was to examine clinicians’ practice and perception of disclosure models for giving bad news to breast cancer patients.
Participants (n = 207, age 21–61 years, mean work experience = 4.03 ± 6 years) working in different medical centers in Tehran, Iran, were recruited by purposive sampling method. They completed clinicians’ attitude and practice of Breaking Bad News (BBN) scales. Psychometric properties (reliability and validity) of these scales were approved.
Clinicians’ practice differed significantly by their perception of disclosure model for giving bad news. Furthermore, difference in clinicians’ practice and perception of disclosure model for BBN was observed for age, gender, medical work experience in oncology setting, and receiving special training. Finally, clinicians’ perception of disclosure model for BBN (Adj. R2 = 0.32), age (Adj. R2 = 0.17), gender (Adj. R2 = 0.11), and receiving special training for giving bad news (Adj. R2 = 0.09) positively predicted their practice of BBN.
Findings of the study point to the importance of the clinicians’ perception of disclosure model for giving bad news and transcultural variables as factors affecting their practice. Therefore, it seems necessary to incorporate special BBN trainings and protocols culturally adapted to the Iranian society in educational curricula of medical specialties in breast cancer setting.