If you want to see the difference between a good doctor and an average doctor, look at how they deliver bad news. This is a skill. It is learned. The physician needs to be highly socialized.
From Physician Weekly:
Multi-system organ failure is likely to present with or develop in patients who are critically ill and even, in the best cases, have a vacillating course of recovery. Associated with improved and sometimes protocolized care, overall ICU outcomes have improved over the last few years despite admitted patients generally being a bit sicker. Despite these improvements, mortality in adult US ICUs remains high-averaging 10-29%, according to the Society of Critical Care Medicine, depending on the patient’s illness severity, age, and co-morbid conditions. As such, delivering bad news to patients and families is a common duty among intensivists.
Some intensivists summarize according to the Setting, Perception, Information, Knowledge, Empathy, and Summarization (SPIKES) protocol mnemonic, but most adapt their preferred interventions in ways associated with the flexibility needed to communicate in any specific case. (more…)
