BMJ  2005;330 (22 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7484.0-e

When in trouble, doctors flee to medicine-land

Doctors faced with discussing difficult treatment options with severely ill patients focus on technical medical issues and avoid discussing patient's values, wishes, and fears, as well as offering advice, even if the patient specifically asks for it. Corke and colleagues (p 182) put 30 junior doctors in a staged "no-win" scenario and scored (from 3 = good to 0 = not discussed) the adequacy of their conversations with the patient (played by an actor). They found a median score of 2.7 for technical medical issues and between 0 and 0.5 for the rest of the topics, and argue that doctors' communication skills need to improve so they are better prepared to help patients make difficult decisions.

Credit: VOISIN/PHANIE/REX

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BMJ 2005 330: 182. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]