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BREAKING THE NEWS: a way of telling parents their newborn child is handicapped
Author(s) -
Jupp Sheila
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of the british institute of mental handicap (apex)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.633
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1468-3156
pISSN - 0261-9997
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-3156.1987.tb00380.x
Subject(s) - intervention (counseling) , nursing , sample (material) , psychology , medicine , medical education , chromatography , chemistry
SUMMARY The study presented a specially designed teaching programme to 12 medical and nursing staff who were all directly involved in breaking the news to parents at the birth of a child with a handicap. It was hypothesised that: (1) the general principles of breaking the news as presented in the teaching programme could be utilised when breaking the news to parents of children with any handicap; and (2) after receiving the information and guidelines as contained in the teaching programme the staff's performance when breaking the news would improve, as would their satisfaction with the way they handled the situation. It was not possible to evaluate hypothesis 1 due to the lack of variation of handicaps in the post intervention sample. As expected results showed a significant improvement in staff performance and satisfaction levels. Further research is being carried out.