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How to Break Bad News: A Guide for Health Care Professionals

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I first came across a reference to this book in a medical ethics class. After watching an attending physician take the wrong tack in explaining a terminal condition, I decided to learn a better way. This book has excellent summaries, frequent examples of the "wrong" way and the "right" way, and is the single best book on talking to patients I've read. A must-read for any health care provider, and especially anyone who has to talk to critically ill patients or their families.

I am a psychololgist. I read this book very carefully and outlined it, it was that good. It is very practical information on how to deliver difficult news. I found that I deliver more difficult news than I thought. I use the six steps outlined in the book now, and teach residents about the book. This is the best resouce I found for delivering bad news to patients.

This is a unique, delightful, and highly practical book. I recommend it very highly for all physicians and mental health professionals. The authors explain that, despite the American focus on informed consent, some patients who develop life threatening disease do NOT want to know all the details, or even the prognosis, of their condition. A wise and useful six-step protocol for breaking bad news is proffered, incorporating both readiness to fully inform and readiness to respect the patient's psychological vulnerabilities. Since bad news comes in many forms in this life, the skills and attitudes described have wide applicability in the helping professions. A TRULY OUTSTANDING videotape also exists as a companion to this book. I don't know if it is available through Amazon or not. PKC

How to Break Bad News is one of the best books on the subject I've found anywhere. I wrote a book called "Difficult Conversations" which deals with some of the same issues in a broader context, and I am impressed indeed by Buckman's book. I wish healthcare workers everywhere would read it.

This is chock full of great advice when you don't know what to say, or are feeling slightly shy or uncomfortable. Just curling up with these study cases in how to tell someone their colon is infecting their entire body and they only have a few weeks to live, or that a hemorrhage in their daughters brain will keep her in a state of vegetation for the rest of her ... life is enough to make anyone feel better about their own situation. Not sure what to say at a party? Just imagine yourself in one of these terrible situations and you'll thankfully be chatting up a storm.