Examining Effective Provider-Parent Communication of Bad News

This study will examine patient-provider communication from a parent’s perspective. Research shows communication between patients and providers to be important; however, when a child is too young to understand their diagnosis, the parent must be the focus of the patient-provider communication process. Parents often report not having effective communication with their children’s physicians, especially when the doctor shares bad news about the child’s health. The need for effective communication becomes especially important when the provider must give the parents important information to help them make the best decisions about their child’s current and future health decisions. This research project seeks to understand what factors influence parental perceptions of effective communication by physicians when the providers are giving bad news about a child’s health