Comunicação de notícias difíceis na formação médica: desenvolvendo competências relacionais

Abstract

Communication is an inherent human act that involves the sharing and understanding of messages sent and received between two or more individuals, it is a fundamental clinical skill for the development of a satisfactory doctor-patient relationship. Good communication contributes to the patient's adherence to the therapeutic proposal, as well as minimizing suffering arising from their health condition through the emotional support provided. Thus, breaking bad news is one of the most difficult doctor's tasks, because of the need to respond to the patient's emotions emphatically and continually, requiring relational skills, which need to be taught in the vocational training process. Nevertheless, students still have little opportunity, within the formal curriculum, to experience situations of breaking bad news. Given this, some projects try to fill this gap in medical education. At UFRN the Dying: a human thing project proposes to teach bad news communication as well as reflect on death and dying in medical training. This project takes place every six months with the participation of 20 medical students who are selected through the selection process. The aim of this study was to analyze the perception of the Dying´s participants about the influence of this project on the development of communication skills. The methodology used was qualitative, descriptive of the case study type. During the semester 2018.2 twenty students from the 2th to the 4th period of school medicine participated. There were 5 meetings, with theoretical and practical discussions. At the end of the process 8 students participated in the Focal Group (GF), in order to analyze the project, highlighting its potentialities and / or weaknesses. The speeches were transcribed and analyzed using the categorical theme proposed by Bardin. After material analysis, three categories emerged: (1) motivation / interest in the Dying project, (2) interesting / relevant project moments, and (3) learning self-assessment. In this context, it is believed that the project contributed to the development of communication skills of medical students, as well as a approximation of the theme of death, a subject not explored during medical training. Thus, participation in this project allowed students, a greater approximation to the humanistic aspects of medical education, so important for the construction of a satisfactory doctor-patient relationship.