Delivering Bad News

All people have to receive bad and good news in their lives and few teachers have been taught or trained to deliver sensitive information.  As a result, some teachers are evasive, some are blunt, some are authoritative, some employ jargon, and most talk without listening.

10 Obstacles to communication about sensitive issues:

1. Ego involvement
2. Differences in knowledge
3. Differences in social status
4. Communicative purposes
5. Emotional distance
6. One-way communication
7. Verbal manipulation
8. Ambiguity of language
9. Role of jargon
10. The pressure of time

Suggestions for delivering what could be perceived as bad news:

1. Provide a comfortable environment.  Make sure you are able to speak in private.
2. Tell the parents together, if possible.  When one parent has to tell the other, misunderstanding and confusion can result.
3. Be aware of the parents readiness level to receive the information.
4. Be aware of your nonverbal cues, they can say more than your verbal statements.
5. Try to have some sense of what the diagnosis means to the parents.
6. Keep the information simple and basic.
7. Try to communicate a sense of being calm and composed.  Try not to communicate feelings hastily.  Allow plenty of time for parent’s questions.
8. Do not argue with parents’ denial.  Denial may be part of the process in the parents’ accepting a handicapping condition.
9. Try to be honest and straight without being brutal.
10. Avoid jargon whenever possible.
11. Be accepting of parents’ reactions.
12. Be aware of one’s own need for power and control in the conference and situation.
13. Be aware that parents may not process all the information given them.