Vol 12, Núm 2

Competencias de los estudiantes del sexto año de medicina de la Universidad del Zulia (LUZ) para comunicar malas noticias.

Judybeth Elena Colmenares Ramírez, José Cruz Rincón Medina, María Valeria Carrasquero Peña, Crisol Estefania Chacon Gualdron, Soraya Andreina Colmenares Prieto, Jesús Eduardo Chacin, Maria Eugenia Chirinos, Diana Chiquinquira Carrasquero Morales.

 

Texto completo [PDF]

Resumen (EN)

In medicine, conveying a truthful message when breaking bad news has come to be a very stressful situation for physicians; considering a bad news as any information that negatively affects a patient’s perception about himself or his future. Currently, in the School of Medicine of the Zulia University (LUZ) there is a noted deficit in curricula for the developing of skills in breaking bad news, mostly because of a lack in teaching ethical aspects of medicine in favour of more technical aspects of it. The purpose of this research consists in the determination of competencies for breaking bad news among senior medical students at University of Zulia’s School of Medicine. A descriptive, survey type, transversal feld study was performed, recruiting a sample of 146 students, who responded an online form delivered through Google Forms, constituted by 38 questions, evaluating different domains of competency (cognitive, attitude, methodology, procedural, ethical and legal). We then analyzed the two more polarized items of each domain. The results indicate that students would act competently according to current guidelines, even in the absence of formal knowledge, which may indicate empirical competency in the context of lack of formal training. The majority of these students would like to be formally trained about breaking bad news in order to offer better care for their patients. Lastly, most of the students perceive their own competency on breaking bad news as poor, suggesting that this kind of training should be included formally into the curricular design of this career.

Keywords: Communication; bad news; competencies; patient-physician communication; skills; delivering bad news.

 

Resumen (ES)

En medicina, la comunicación de la verdad, cuando se desea informar malas noticias, se convierte en una situación estresante para los médicos, entendiéndose como mala noticia cualquier información que afecte negativamente la visión de un individuo sobre sí mismo y su futuro. Actualmente en la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad del Zulia (LUZ) se evidencia déficit en la formación curricular de las destrezas de comunicar malas noticias, debido a que la educación se basa en enseñar aspectos técnicos y se descuidan aspectos éticos de la medicina. El propósito de esta investigación consiste en determinar las competencias para comunicar malas noticias de los estudiantes del último año de la Escuela de Medicina de LUZ. Se realizó un estudio de campo, descriptivo, de tipo encuesta transversal, con una población de 800 estudiantes del último año de medicina, con una muestra de 146, a quienes les fue aplicada una encuesta online a través de Google Forms, constituida por 38 ítems, evaluando diferentes dominios (cognoscitivo, actitudinal, metodológico, procedimental y ético-legal), analizando las dos preguntas más polarizadas de cada dominio. Los resultados indican que los estudiantes actuarían con acciones similares a las de los protocolos, aun cuando los desconocen, lo que indica que los conocimientos adquiridos son empíricos y no por educación formal. Un gran porcentaje desea instrucción sobre comunicar malas noticias y así abarcar al paciente integralmente. Finalmente, se determina que la mayoría se siente incapaz de comunicar malas noticias, por lo que se sugiere incluir este tópico en el diseño curricular de la carrera de medicina.

Palabras clave: Comunicación; malas noticias; comunicar malas noticias; paciente; médico.

Licencia de Creative Commons

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