Delivering Bad News in Adult and                  Pediatric Patients

Breaking bad news is never an easy task. Doing so as a clinician in the emergency department can be even more challenging and when it involves children, can be profound. This month we are going to ask JC participants to review all of the included articles and well as the links below. First, is a link to The Pause a website developed by a nurse from UVa who makes a powerful statement about the power of taking a 45 second pause when a patient dies in the ED. A few months ago, one of our residents asked about doing a JC on how we as clinicians manage loss ourselves. Big question. Along those lines, I found a very insightful op-ed piece in the NYT by someone who counsels parents who have lost a child and is highly recommend. This month we are very happy to have our colleagues from CHKD Peds EM join us for what I expect will be a candid and informative discussion. Hope to see you there! Charlie

Rutkowski A. Death notification in the emergency department. Ann Emerg Med. 2002 Nov;40(5):521-3.

Truog RD et al, Sudden traumatic death in children: "We did everything, but your child didn't survive" JAMA. 2006 Jun 14;295(22):2646-54

Park I et al, Breaking bad news education for emergency medicine residents: A novel training module using simulation with the SPIKES protocol. J Emerg Trauma Shock. 2010 Oct;3(4):385-8.

Hobgood C. et al, The educational intervention "GRIEV_ING" improves the death notification skills of residents. Acad Emerg Med. 2005 Apr;12(4):296-301.

 Meert KL et al, Parents' perspectives on physician-parent communication near the time of a child's death in the pediatric intensive care unit. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2008 Jan;9(1):2-7.