ASSESSING THE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE TOWARD BREAKING BAD NEWS AMONG ER RESIDENTS-WESTERN REGION- SAUDI ARABIA

Background: Breaking bad news is challenging, and Physicians are usually poorly trained or untrained in BBN guides and protocols.

Aim: To assess ER residents' knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding delivering bad news to patients and/or relatives.

Results: A descriptive cross-sectional study in the emergency department (ED) – Western Region – Saudi Arabia among residents’ doctors during April and May 2023.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that only 33.6% showed excellent knowledge of BBN, and 15.9% had above an average attitude. Besides, only 54.9% only knew about the SPIKE protocol. Thus, breaking bad news among ER resident doctors is generally informal and requires improvement.

Keywords: breaking bad news (BBN) – knowledge – attitude – practice