Assessment of nurse's knowledge about how to convey bad news to patients and their companions

One of the aspects of clinical communication is the process of delivering bad news. Informing bad news has subtle psychological details that the informer has to be aware of them. So the researcher conducted this study to assess nurses’ knowledge about how to convey bad news to patients and their companions in Persian Gulf Martyrs’ hospital of Bushehr in 2013 In this descriptive-analytic study which was done in a cross-sectional form, knowledge of nurses working in Persian Gulf Martyrs’ Hospital of Bushehr. Data collected by a researser made questionnaire. Data analyze was by descriptive and analytic statistics. Analysis of the data revealed that most nurses had good knowledge. On the other hand a significant difference was seen between the gender groups (p=0.004), the groups of job experience (p=0.041) and the workplace (p=0.031) in knowledge level. Although there wasn’t seen any significant differences in knowledge level in order of the rate of interest in the job (p=0.104) and degree (p=0.189). According to the results obtained from this study and also with an emphasis on the importance of transferring bad news, we can be hopeful that with the development of appropriate training programs in this field, more desired results can be achieved.