Table 1.

Medical students’ concerns regarding breaking bad news

	Respondents (N=225)
	Before intervention (144)	After intervention (115)	Clinical rotations (95)
Communication concerns	125	78	60
Choosing words	67	38	27
Appropriate behaviour	58	35	17
Adapting to the patient	48	18	14
Supporting the patient	21	17	15
Empathy	14	7	11
Managing time	11	12	7
Lacking competence	13	9	7
Appropriate distance	17	8	2
Adapting to the situation	10	1	3
Maintaining the doctor–patient relationship	8	5	5
Managing the discussion	3	6	1
Knowing oneself well	1	1	0
Being victim of a misunderstanding	0	0	1
Family pressure	0	0	1
Emotional concerns	83	59	45
Facing the patient's emotions	55	41	30
Specific expressed emotions	24	12	5
Managing one's own emotions	17	19	17
Emotional distance and personal implication	17	9	11
Feeling powerless	7	6	7
Empathy is difficult	3	1	3
Emotions of patient's family	3	1	1
Being associated with the bad news	3	3	0
Feeling of injustice	1	0	0
Ethical concerns	71	32	34
Improving consequences for the patient	50	22	20
Truthfulness	20	6	7
Respecting the patient	11	4	8
Personal responsibility	11	3	4
Respecting autonomy	5	1	0
Doing one's best	4	4	1
Integrity	2	0	3
Not acting like a member of the family	1	0	0
Not remaining technical	0	0	2
Being fair	0	0	1
Practical concerns	18	12	14
Allowing treatment to take place	9	5	6
Not having enough experience	3	2	4
Obtaining long-term follow-up	2	2	0
Having time for the patient	1	3	4
Including the patient's family	3	0	0
Finding oneself in a difficult position	1	1	0
Announcing uncertainty is difficult	0	1	0