Mothers' preferences toward breaking bad news about their children cancer

Background: The responsibility of breaking bad news (BBN) to patients is one of the most difficult tasks of a medical profession.

Aim: The current study aimed to investigate the preferences of mothers of children with cancer about BBN.

Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study was conducted in Mashhad during years of 2016, 62 mothers of children with cancer at Dr-Sheikh hospital were recruited by convenience sampling and completed a questionnaire including demographic data and 20 questions about the mothers' preferences to BBN. Data displayed as percent by SPSS V20 software.

Results: Mothers preferred that BBN conducted by their child's doctor (93.5%), with an emotional and compassionate way (83.9%), and in a private setting (90.3%). Be told completely about the process of diagnosis (98.4%), meet people with similar conditions (83.9%), receive psychological (85.5%), and religious (79%) support after getting bad news, being in touch with a close relative (82.3%) and applying another term-like malignancy instead of cancer (95.5%).

Conclusion: We tried providing helpful information for developing national guidelines about how to breaking news in Iran, by doing this study.