I've got some bad news ...: Veterinarians' recollections of communicating bad news to clients

The purpose of this investigation was to gain a better understanding of the transactional processes associated with communicating bad news. The authors asked 62 veterinarians to recall a time when they gave bad news and to respond to a series of statements designed to assess what they did in the transaction and how the transaction impacted the receiver of the news, as well as themselves. The majority of participants followed recommendations published in the medical and veterinary literatures, but rated some of these recommended strategies as making the news harder to give. Although these transactions were not rated as being overly stressful, for some veterinarians stress transcended the bounds of the interaction. Consistent with a transactional stress and coping perspective, preparation efforts were correlated with delivery efforts. However, preparation stress was unrelated to preparation or delivery efforts, and neither preparation efforts nor delivery efforts related to effectiveness appraisals or perceptions of client satisfaction.