Background: Physicians perform many difficult skills, but notifying loved ones about the death of a family member is a particularly challenging skill that requires specific training. Descriptions of such training are lacking in the literature. We developed a formative standardised patient encounter on death notification over the telephone for fourth-year medical students and evaluated their qualitative perspectives, including emotional safety.
Approach: Embedded within a fourth-year advanced communication skills workshop in 2019, a case was introduced to practice telephone death notification. Students had a preparatory didactic lesson, received formative peer feedback, and participated in faculty-led debriefs.
Evaluation: Eighty-eight medical students at one medical school in the United States participated in debriefing sessions after a communication skills workshop during the fourth-year capstone course. The debriefing sessions were audio-recorded and transcribed. Fifty-seven of those students completed postsession surveys. Transcripts and surveys were qualitatively analysed using content analysis to code responses, extract salient categories, and distil into themes. Three general themes emerged: communication challenges, emotional responses, and appreciation for the experience. Communication challenges included using language about death, experiences of silence, complications of distance and driving, and communication by phone. Students described the case as "challenging," "uncomfortable," "intense," and "emotional." Despite these strong feelings, students expressed appreciation for the experience, noting appropriateness of the preparation and debrief, a sense of safety, and realistic encounters.
Implications: Telephone death notification training was a valued, realistic, and emotionally safe experience. Students felt appropriately challenged, but adequately supported. These skills can be included in formative communication skills curricula.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/tct.13846 | DOI Listing |
Clin Teach
February 2025
Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Background: Physicians perform many difficult skills, but notifying loved ones about the death of a family member is a particularly challenging skill that requires specific training. Descriptions of such training are lacking in the literature. We developed a formative standardised patient encounter on death notification over the telephone for fourth-year medical students and evaluated their qualitative perspectives, including emotional safety.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Glob Health
January 2025
Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research, School of Medicine and Population Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
Background: Tuberculous meningitis is fatal if untreated and can lead to lifelong neurological sequelae. However, to our knowledge, there are no data on the number of children affected by this disease. We aimed to estimate the global disease burden and attributable mortality of childhood tuberculous meningitis by WHO regions, age groups, treatment status, and HIV status in 2019.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Med
December 2024
National Addiction Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK.
Background: Exposure to illicit substances during pregnancy may have long-term impacts on children's neurodevelopment. This study explores subsequent risks for intellectual disability, autistic disorders, and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders in children born to mothers exposed to illicit substances before or during pregnancy.
Methods: We identified women with illicit drug use by linking the police records from the "Substance Abuse Control Databases" and Taiwan Birth Registration and Birth Notification records from 2004 to 2014.
BMC Health Serv Res
December 2024
Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Legon-Accra, Ghana.
Introduction: Maternal death rates in Ghana have decreased overall but remain high in rural areas. The Maternal Death Surveillance and Response System (MDSR) aims to eliminate preventable maternal deaths effectively. However, its effectiveness is less pronounced at district and subdistrict levels than at national and regional levels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRev Panam Salud Publica
December 2024
Organización Panamericana de la Salud Washington D.C. Estados Unidos de América Organización Panamericana de la Salud, Washington D.C.: Estados Unidos de América.
Objective: To document and compare risk factors and control measures for the largest measles outbreaks in the post-elimination era in the Region of the Americas.
Methods: Description of risk factors such as vaccination coverage, notification rate of suspected cases, measles incidence, and a summary of control measures for major measles outbreaks in six countries from 2017 to 2023. The analysis also includes a review of outbreak characteristics (time, place, and person).
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