Evaluation of residents' thoughts about giving the news of death.

Objective: To assess behaviours and attitudes of residents toward giving news of death in emergency department and other departments.

Methods: The study was conducted between 1st and 7th December, 2012, in an urban hospital in Ankara, Turkey. It used a questionnarie that was filled by 100 residents from different disciplines of medicine. Categorical variables were analysed with Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests and continuous variables were analysed with Mann Whitney test. The level of statistical significance was set at 0.05.

Results: The most difficult cases to notify were those of unexpected and sudden deaths (n = 51; 51%) followed by deaths of children (n = 36; 36%). While 60% (n = 60) of the study group reported a need for training in this area, but there was no association between having difficulty in notifying a death and expressing the need for training (p = 0.187). Residents who had difficulty in notifying death informed the patient's close ones more often during resuscitation (p = 0.049) and requested for security staff more often during the final briefing compared with the group that did not express having difficulty (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Notifying death is still a challenging issue in medicine. Instead of educational efforts, security measures may be more beneficial and comforting for residents who have difficulty in conveying the news.