To help patients cope with terminal illness, healthcare providers must imagine themselves in the place of these patients, according to Tami Borneman, MSN, CNS, a research specialist at City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, California.
In a presentation at the sixth annual Oncology Congress, she coaxed her audience to pretend their own deaths were imminent. “I really want us to take in what it’s like to be a person receiving bad news,” she said.
Healthcare workers need such exercise es, because communicating bad news is really difficult, she said.
Although few researchers have gathered empirical data about communicating bad news, Borneman cited a study that illustrated difficulties and misconceptions (Wittenberg-Lyles EM, et al. Soc Sci Med. 2008;66:2356-2365). In observing palliative care teams, re - searchers noted three misconceptions:
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