Sharing Serious News

Delivering bad news to a patient and/or family is one of the hardest things you do as a clinician working in palliative care. Research shows your personal communication skills can have a profound impact on patient decision-making, satisfaction and even outcomes.

Sharing Serious News will equip you for those hard conversations with clear and effective strategies that improve communication, encourage empathy, and reduce stress for patients, families, and the palliative care team.

When done well, sharing distressing news can preserve and strengthen the clinician-patient relationship, foster collaboration, and promote healing and coping with illness, injury, or death. Done poorly, it can cause unnecessary suffering, not just for the patient but for providers who feel overwhelmed and defeated by the experience.

This curriculum utilizes case studies, interactive exercises and other tools to show you how to better deliver difficult news. Whether it be a diagnosis of serious illness, treatment failure, transitions in care, or unexpected death, better communication skills support patients and families as they absorb life-changing information.

This is part of our Communication Skills for Clinicians series, designed to enhance provider-patient relationships, improve job satisfaction, and build teamwork. Learn more.

What You’ll Learn

• Utilize the six-step SPIKES model for sharing serious news
• Describe three elements of preparing the setting to share serious news
• Describe two opportunities for showing empathy
• Demonstrate two communication tools for sharing serious news with patients

What You’ll Earn

2 continuing education (CE) credits approved by the following accreditation bodies:

• CEs are provided through California State University San Marcos, accredited by the Western Association of  Schools and Colleges (WASC).
• The Doctors Company designates this activity for a maximum of 2 AMA PRA Category 2 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. 

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of The Doctors Company and California State University Shiley Institute for Palliative Care. The Doctors Company is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. 

Course Authors

Kathleen A. Bonvicini, MPH, EdD, is the Chief Executive Officer at the Institute for Healthcare Communication (IHC), a nonprofit organization based in New Haven, CT, that has been designing and implementing skill-based communication training to health professionals since 1989.

Barbara Andrews, MPPM, MPH, has been the Director of Grants and Projects with the Institute for Healthcare Communication (IHC) since 2011. She brings extensive experience in grant seeking and management, health policy, business research, and program development and management.

Completion and Refunds

In order to complete this course and obtain a certificate, you must view the course in its entirety, correctly answer all case studies and quiz/test questions (as appropriate) and complete the evaluation. You will have 90 days to access this course from the date of purchase. No refunds are given for self-paced courses.