Teaching objectives to capacitate Medicine students or physicians to communicate difficult news

Abstract

Communicating difficult news is a general class of behaviors to be exhibited by phy­sicians in their professional field. The proposition of teaching objectives in order to explain be­haviors to be learned can increase the probability of teaching effectiveness. Therefore, the aim of this study was to characterize behaviors that constitute teaching objectives in training to enable physicians or medical students to communicate difficult news. A systematic literature review was carried out with searches of the SCOPUS database and CAPES Journals. The teach­ing objectives, as well as their components, were categorized, and evaluated according to the criteria of Nature, Form, Clarity, Completeness and Target-Agent. Of the objectives, 62.61% were rated as sufficient in relation to Nature; 61.73% to Form; 35.84% to Clarity; 16.59% to Completeness; and 86.73% to the Target Agent. Previous stimuli for simulated tasks, general activities and for the behavior of communicating difficult news were described. Five excerpts referred to the consequences of the behavior of communicating difficult news in simulated patients or in the learner’s field of action. The characterization made it possible to demonstrate that the teaching objectives proposed in the training are relevant, but have characteristics that can impact the degree of effectiveness of teaching