Assessing physicians’ performance when telling the truth to patients diagnosed with cancer

Background & Objective: Breaking bad news to patients, especially those diagnosed with cancer, is one of the challengeable issues in the field of medicine. Hence, this study was designed to assess physicians' performance as well as importance of their training on how to deliver bad news to patients diagnosed with cancer. Materials & Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study assessed physicians’ performance in delivering bad health-related news to patients. A total of 12 hematologists and oncologists from Imam Khomeini Hospital and Shariati Hospital in Tehran, Iran were included in the study. A questionnaire including six statements (SPIKES model) was used to evaluate the performance of physicians. The time of breaking the cancer diagnosis news to patients by the physicians and educational records were evaluated with the average score of the physicians related to each statement. Results: There was no significant difference between the statements and age or gender (P>0.05); but there was a significant correlation between ending the discussion (conversation), summarizing the content, and using the word "cancer” during the conversation (P<0.05). Additionally, there was a significant correlation between the time spent on informing the patient about the cancer diagnosis and concluding the discussion and summarizing the statements (P