Abstract
Research question
Recent empiric research shows the importance of open information in telling diagnoses to children. How well are paediatricians prepared to this part of their job? What difficulties do they experience?
Methods
34 paediatricians in training and 6 paediatricians were submitted to a semistructured interview exploring their routines and difficulties in telling diagnoses. Relevant variables were: the age of the child, the severity of the disease, years of work-experience and their opinion about their abilities to communicate diagnoses to children. The data were quantatively analyzed using a chi-square test for differences between the variables.
Results
87% of the respondents experienced difficulties in telling diagnoses to the child. Problem sources are: uncertainty about the child's level of understanding, the child's emotional reactions (a.o. a non-responsive attitude), severity of the diagnosis and parental acceptance of the diagnosis. No correlation was found between experienced difficulties and the years of work-experience of the respondents. A significant negative correlation was found between the experienced difficulties and the variable “having own children” indicating that being a parent facilitates the doctor-child relationship.
84% of the respondents expressed the need of extra education in coping with the question what and how to tell the child about his/her disease?
Conclusion
The data of this research show that paediatricians need more education in children's conceptualization of disease and treatment. Special attention to telling the diagnosis in educational programs is recommended.
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Last, B., Destrée-Vonk, A., Schröder, F. et al. 123 DIFFICULTIES PAEDIATRICIANS MEET IN TELLING DIAGNOSES TO CHILDREN. Pediatr Res 36, 23 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199407000-00123
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199407000-00123