Contributions of the Communication and Management of Bad News in Nursing to the Readaptation Process in Palliative Care: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Background: Delivering bad news is a sensitive and challenging aspect of nursing healthcare, requiring a holistic approach that respects patients’ preferences, cultural values, and religious beliefs to promote adaptation to the person’s state of health. Aim: We aim to map the evidence of the dimensions present in the communication and management of bad news by nurses to a person in a palliative situation, their caregivers, and their family members. Methods: Based on the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology, the search was conducted through MEDLINE Complete (EBSCOhost), CINAHL Complete (EBSCOhost), SciELO, and the Open Access Scientific Repository in Portugal. From a total of 756 articles, 14 were included, published between 2018 and 2023. Results: Structure components in bad news are influenced by the characteristics of the palliative patients, their caregivers, their family members, the nurses, and the organizational environment. Promoting the quality of the communication process is desirable through continuous and advanced training in end-of-life care, training in bad news, religiously and culturally sensitive nursing interventions centered on hope and maintaining faith, emotional management, and the utilization of a checklist protocol. Conclusions: Honest communication allows people to actively participate in the decision-making process and in the trajectory of the care plan that is focused on themselves and their preferences, which has outcomes in functional capacities and readaptation.

Keywords

• communication
• breaking bad news
• palliative nursing care