Truth with hope
Iona Novak, Marelle Thornton, Cathy Morgan, Petra Karlsson, Hayley Smithers-Sheedy and Nadia Badawi
01 Clinical scenario (video)
02 Prologue (video)
03 The ethics of sharing news
04 Non-maleficence
05 Autonomy
06 Beneficence
07 Justice
08 An evidence-based process for sharing news
09-15 SPIKES (Steps 1-6) (video)
16 Themes for discussion
17 Epilogue (video)
00 References
00 User Guide
00 Learning Account
Truth with hope: ethical challenges in disclosing ‘bad’ diagnostic, prognostic and intervention information
Truth with Hope Hilary Cass and Lisa Kauffmann (8m01s)
Communicating bad news to parents and carers must be recognized as a process rather than a one-time event.
When this process is done ineptly or insensitively it can add a considerable burden to the suffering experienced by families new to the ‘career’ of parents of a child with a chronic problem.
In this sensitive and also practical learning module, Novak and colleagues discuss the communication of bad news by exploring the processes through an ethical framework, and present comments from several parents to illustrate the impact that this process can have.
The authors then provide an evidence-based approach to sharing ‘bad news’, developed in the field of cancer care (the six steps of the SPIKES framework) as a guide to this challenging but essential step in building a relationship with families.
