Handle with Care to Giving Bad News

Mayo Clinic Talks

Host: Darryl S. Chutka, M.D. [@chutkaMD]

Guest: Amanda K. Lorenz, M.D.

Giving our patients bad or unexpected news is one of the most difficult, but also one of the most important responsibilities we have as health care clinicians. This is when our patients need us the most and we need to do this with compassion and empathy. This is best done face to face and ideally once we have established a good relationship with our patient. Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible. A clinician in the emergency department telling a patient they’ve suffered an MI or a radiologist explaining a worrisome finding on mammogram may have just recently met the patient. What’s the best way to give our patients bad news? Can we become better at this? What can we expect from our patients after they hear the news? And how much information should we share with them? These are all topics we’ll discuss with our guest, Amanda K. Lorenz, M.D., a palliative medicine physician. Our topic for this podcast is “Giving Bad News”.

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