Breaking bad news to a prospective cross-sectional sample of patients’ relatives in a Nigerian neurosurgical service
Objectives: Breaking of medical bad news is anecdotally deemed culturally unacceptable, even intolerable, to native Africans. We explored this hypothesis among a cohort of relatives of patients who had difficult neurosurgical diagnoses in an indigenous practice. Materials and Methods: A semi-structu...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2013-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Neurology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fneur.2013.00110/full |
| _version_ | 1819264666113671168 |
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| author | Amos Olufemi Adeleye Akinola A. Fatiregun |
| author_facet | Amos Olufemi Adeleye Akinola A. Fatiregun |
| author_sort | Amos Olufemi Adeleye |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objectives: Breaking of medical bad news is anecdotally deemed culturally unacceptable, even intolerable, to native Africans. We explored this hypothesis among a cohort of relatives of patients who had difficult neurosurgical diagnoses in an indigenous practice. Materials and Methods: A semi-structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire was used in a cross-sectional survey among a consecutive cohort of surrogates / relatives of concerned patients. Their opinion and preferences regarding the full disclosure of the grave neurosurgical diagnoses, and prognoses, of their wards were analysed. Results: A total of 114 patients’ relatives, 83 (72.8%) females, were sampled. They were mainly young adults, mean age 40.2(SD 14.2) years; 57% had only basic literacy education; but the majority, 97%, declared themselves to have serious religious commitments. Ninety nine percent of the study participants deemed it desirable that either they or the patients concerned be told the bad news; 80.7% felt that this is best done with both patients and relations in attendance; 3.5% felt only the patients need be told. These preferences are similar to those expressed by the patients themselves in an earlier study. But a nearly significant greater proportion of patients’ relatives (15 vs 5%, p=0.06) would rather be the only ones to be told the patients’ bad news. Conclusions: This data-driven study showed that contrary to anecdotal belief about them, a cohort of native Nigerian-African surrogates of neurosurgical patients was well disposed to receiving, and appeared able to handle well, the full disclosure of difficult medical diagnostic / prognostic information. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T20:33:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4827242b5ba94404ab7b7d3d5bd7e468 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-2295 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T20:33:06Z |
| publishDate | 2013-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Neurology |
| spelling | doaj.art-4827242b5ba94404ab7b7d3d5bd7e4682022-12-21T17:32:10ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neurology1664-22952013-08-01410.3389/fneur.2013.0011060780Breaking bad news to a prospective cross-sectional sample of patients’ relatives in a Nigerian neurosurgical serviceAmos Olufemi Adeleye0Akinola A. Fatiregun1College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, and University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, NigeriaCollege of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, and University College Hospital, UCHObjectives: Breaking of medical bad news is anecdotally deemed culturally unacceptable, even intolerable, to native Africans. We explored this hypothesis among a cohort of relatives of patients who had difficult neurosurgical diagnoses in an indigenous practice. Materials and Methods: A semi-structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire was used in a cross-sectional survey among a consecutive cohort of surrogates / relatives of concerned patients. Their opinion and preferences regarding the full disclosure of the grave neurosurgical diagnoses, and prognoses, of their wards were analysed. Results: A total of 114 patients’ relatives, 83 (72.8%) females, were sampled. They were mainly young adults, mean age 40.2(SD 14.2) years; 57% had only basic literacy education; but the majority, 97%, declared themselves to have serious religious commitments. Ninety nine percent of the study participants deemed it desirable that either they or the patients concerned be told the bad news; 80.7% felt that this is best done with both patients and relations in attendance; 3.5% felt only the patients need be told. These preferences are similar to those expressed by the patients themselves in an earlier study. But a nearly significant greater proportion of patients’ relatives (15 vs 5%, p=0.06) would rather be the only ones to be told the patients’ bad news. Conclusions: This data-driven study showed that contrary to anecdotal belief about them, a cohort of native Nigerian-African surrogates of neurosurgical patients was well disposed to receiving, and appeared able to handle well, the full disclosure of difficult medical diagnostic / prognostic information.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fneur.2013.00110/fullNeurosurgeryBreaking of bad news; patient’s family’s preference; native Africansbreaking of bad newspatient's family's preferencenative Africans |
| spellingShingle | Amos Olufemi Adeleye Akinola A. Fatiregun Breaking bad news to a prospective cross-sectional sample of patients’ relatives in a Nigerian neurosurgical service Frontiers in Neurology Neurosurgery Breaking of bad news; patient’s family’s preference; native Africans breaking of bad news patient's family's preference native Africans |
| title | Breaking bad news to a prospective cross-sectional sample of patients’ relatives in a Nigerian neurosurgical service |
| title_full | Breaking bad news to a prospective cross-sectional sample of patients’ relatives in a Nigerian neurosurgical service |
| title_fullStr | Breaking bad news to a prospective cross-sectional sample of patients’ relatives in a Nigerian neurosurgical service |
| title_full_unstemmed | Breaking bad news to a prospective cross-sectional sample of patients’ relatives in a Nigerian neurosurgical service |
| title_short | Breaking bad news to a prospective cross-sectional sample of patients’ relatives in a Nigerian neurosurgical service |
| title_sort | breaking bad news to a prospective cross sectional sample of patients relatives in a nigerian neurosurgical service |
| topic | Neurosurgery Breaking of bad news; patient’s family’s preference; native Africans breaking of bad news patient's family's preference native Africans |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fneur.2013.00110/full |
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