Ethical analysis of physicians' and nurses' thoughts and experiences regarding breaking bad news

Ethical Analysis of Physicians' and Nurses' Thoughts and Experiences Regarding Breaking Bad News Delivering bad news in medical practice involves a wide variety of challenges for both the receiver and the deliverer. Reporting bad news is a situation that physicians and nurses cannot avoid in their life. Cancer is associated with death and dying by people. Ethical responsibility of physicians is to tell the patient the diagnosis with truth, keeping optimism and hope. This thesis study was conducted as a phenomenological qualitative study in order to explore the thoughts and experiences of physicians and nurses who are working in oncology about giving bad news and to analyze them ethically. For that purpose, "individual in-depth interview technique" was used. The interview was conducted on a semi-structured questionnaire. The thesis study was carried out with the participation of 14 oncology specialists and 20 oncology nurses. The data obtained from the interviews were evaluated by content analysis method. With this method, the main themes, themes and codes were determined based on the discourses of physicians and nurses. Interviews with physicians and nurses, interpretation of bad news, the addressee of bad news, the responsibility of reporting bad news, the process/methods of giving bad news and suggestions, the factors affecting giving bad news, the effect of giving bad news on physicians and nurses, avoiding giving bad news, giving bad news In particular, the values emphasized, bad news method suggestions were discussed under the main themes and examined in accordance with the research objectives and questions. Based on the experiences of physicians and nurses, it is a compelling process to report bad news, they usually avoid giving bad news affected by many factors, and this process involves ethical problems. Most of the nurses defend that bad news should be shared with the patient because of the trust relationship between patient and nurse and patient autonomy. It is seen that it is important to make arrangements to include nurses, who are frequently faced with the phenomenon of giving bad news, in this process. In order to reduce the negative effect of reporting bad news, to improve communication with the patient, and to provide an opportunity to report with an ethical understanding, bad news education should be given at the undergraduate level and should be continued with in-service trainings in the post-graduate periods, as well. In addition, it is recommended to adopt an interdisciplinary approach in which the health disciplines with which the patients who receive the bad news are in contact throughout the process can work together. Keywords: breaking bad news, ethical dilemmas, oncology, physician, nurse