Braking bad news (BBN) to patients is a frequent and stress-evoking task for many physicians. Medical students do already practice this demanding task in communication trainings with simulation patients. The intensity of their stress reaction is comparable to that in the real situation and can lead to a decrease of their BBN skills performance.Therefore, it is important to provide strategies that help medical students to effectively deal with this highly stressful communication task.
Aims
The aim of this project is to explore the effects of the strategies «stress arousal reappraisal» and «preparatory learning with worked examples» on medical students’ stress response and BBN skills perfromance. For this purpose, 200 medical students from Swiss universities will be tasked with BBN to simulation patients. BBN skills performance, cardiovascular activity, stress hormone release and the subjective stress perception of the students will be recorded.
Financing
SNF project 100019_200831
PhD Thesis Commission, Graduate School for Health Sciences
PhD candidate: Michel Bosshard (Master of Science in Psychologie)
Thesis Advisor: PD Dr. med. Christoph Berendonk, MME
Co-Referee: Prof. Dr. Achim Alfering, Institut für Psychologie, Bern
SNF project partner
IML:
PD Dr. med. Christoph Berendonk, MME (Main applicant)
Dr. phil. Felix Schmitz
Prof. Dr. phil. Sissel Guttormsen
External project partners:
PD Dr. Patrick Gomez, University Lausanne, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, Switzerland
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Urs Markus Nater, Universität Vienna, Austria
