Teaching Delivery of Bad News Using Experiential Sessions With Standardized Patients

Abstract

Delivering bad news is a difficult task that is important to address in medical education. This study evaluated the impact of an experiential educational intervention using multiple standardized patient scenarios on medical students' comfort with delivering difficult news. In small groups, 3rd-year medical students practiced communicating bad news within the context of five different patient scenarios. During 1999 and 2000, surveys were administered to 341 students before and 4 weeks and 1 year after the program. Students rated comfort level in discussing bad news, terminal illness, hospice, and dying with patients. A significant one standard deviation change was observed in students' self-reported comfort in communicating bad news after the educational program. The intervention was highly rated, especially the encounters with standardized patients and observation of others. Experiential education using multiple standardized patient scenarios is a successful model for increasing student comfort in responding to difficult clinical communication tasks.