Breaking Bad News: An Interdisciplinary Educational Development Pilot Project For Students of Nursing and Midwifery, February 2003

The following report explores the findings from an interprofessional teaching and learning curriculum innovation, which took place within the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, and Pharmacy at the University of Manchester during January 2002. This pilot study encouraged medical and nursing students to learn specific communication skills associated with ‘breaking bad news to patients and relatives’ over two half-day sessions. During this time, the students practiced the skills within an interprofessional learning context. These educational processes were augmented by the use of simulated patients. For this reason, the evaluation strategy examined not only whether the students considered the educational approach useful or threatening but also how they felt about working with simulated patients. The innovation was also evaluated in detail in order to establish whether integrating the medical and nursing curriculum in this way would be feasible and beneficial for future healthcare students.