Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Health Care Providers at Nkhoma Mission Hospital Towards Breaking Bad News
Abstract
Type of study: This is a qualitative research study project
Study problem: Breaking bad news’ is a challenging skill that is integral to health care practice.
While a number of studies have been conducted to assess the state of palliative care in Malawi,
the aspect of how effective is the communication of poor prognoses to the patients and guardians
has not been explored. Studies done elsewhere have showed that the manner in which the breaking
of bad news is done has significant impact on both the patient and relatives/guardians. While the
knowledge of breaking bad news is learned at school, it is not whether this knowledge translates
to the culturally acceptable and effective ways of breaking bad news.
Objectives: The main of objective of this study is to evaluate the general knowledge, attitudes,
and practices of breaking bad news of health care and spiritual care providers at Nkhoma Mission
Hospital. This main objective will be achieved by the following specific objectives:
1. To explore the attitudes and practices of breaking bad news(BBN) among health care
providers(HCPs) at Nkhoma Mission Hospital (NMH)
2. To explore the attitudes and practices of breaking bad news(BBN) of chaplains at Nkhoma
Mission Hospital (NMH)
3. To explore the knowledge of breaking bad news (BBN) of the chaplains at Nkhoma Mission
Hospital (NMH)
4. To explore the knowledge of breaking bad news (BBN) of Healthcare Providers (HCPs) at
NMH.
Methodology: The study will take place at Nkhoma mission hospital. A total of 15 Health Care
Providers will be interviewed in one to one interviews. This include clinicians, nurses and the
chaplaincy team. There will also be 4 focus group discussions. The data collected in the focus
group discussions will be transcribed and kept in the password protected drives. The data from
the sim-structured interviews will be kept in the locker protected file. The data will be analysed
inductively in themes.
Expected findings: It is expected that gaps will be found in the attitudes and practices of breaking
bad news at Nkhoma mission hospital.
Dissemination of results: The report of the results will be submitted to the COMREC secretariat,
Department of Family Medicine, KUHES, and Nkhoma Mission Hospital. The results will be
published in a reputable journal.
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Description
Keywords
IMPLENTATION SCIENCE