COMMUNICATION OF BAD NEWS BY GYNECOLOGY AND OBSTETRICS RESIDENTS
SPIKES Protocol; Communicating Bad News; Residents; Obstetrics; Gynecology.
The need for and idea of systematizing the process of communicating bad news comes mainly from the complexity of the task, the difficulty faced by the professionals in charge and the lack of approach to this subject in undergraduate courses and health institutions. Thus, communicating a fetal loss or malformation, as well as a diagnosis of breast or uterine cancer, becomes a delicate task for many doctors, especially obstetrics and gynecology residents. The aim of this study is to explore the perspectives, barriers and practices of residents at a Brazilian Maternity School, located in Rio Grande do Norte, in relation to communicating bad news to patients and their families. This is a cross-sectional study with a qualitative research approach, in which a semi-structured interview was conducted with gynecology and obstetrics residents, using a previously prepared script. The results showed that for residents, the way information is presented and the context in which it is provided tend to be more influential than the content of the information itself. Thus, specialists in obstetrics and gynecology could benefit significantly from training and protocols designed specifically for the nuances of their field. However, the effective implementation of such training still faces challenges, highlighting the lack of concrete data on the most effective methods in this area.