Hospital staff, patients and relatives join forces to produce pioneering 'bad news' training DVD

Reporter: Ask Bury
Date online: 23 July 2007

Staff from two Greater Manchester hospitals have taken part in a pioneering DVD project to train healthcare workers in breaking bad news.

The staff are from Fairfield General Hospital and North Manchester General Hospital, which are both run by Pennine Acute Trust, the largest hospital trust in the North West.

The DVD features members of staff, patients and relatives, talking about the different kinds of bad news, about experiences of breaking bad news, and also about receiving it. They also include scenarios for staff to discuss.

A booklet has been written to accompany the DVDs, and now the package is being used in training sessions for staff working in all four Pennine Acute Trust hospitals ndash; Fairfield, North Manchester General, Rochdale Infirmary and The Royal Oldham Hospital.

Mary Kinsella, a bereavement trainer at Fairfield who led the project, said: ldquo;No-one likes to have to break bad news to a patient, or a relative, but when it has to be done then we want it to be done well.

“You can’t make assumptions about bad news ndash; what is bad news to one person may not be bad news to another; and vice versa. Some bad news involves life-changing information, or news of a death, while sometimes it can be about very short term issues, such as a delay in a discharge date.

“This DVD builds on the experiences of patients, relatives and staff ndash; and we can learn very useful lessons from what everyone involved has said. Good communication is complex at the best of times, but it is even more complex when it involves bad news.

“We are all sure that this will be an extremely useful training tool, and in the years to come it will help hundreds of clinical staff, and, in turn, thousands of patients.”

The project team comprised of Mary Kinsella, Carol Waterhouse, of the Trust’s continuing professional development team, and Lindsay Eavis, training administrator at the Fairfield education centre, who carried out the editing and preparation of the DVD.

Lindsay is also heavily involved in the Summerseat Players, based at the Theatre Royal in Ramsbottom. As well as acting there, she directs and teaches the youth group.

Lindsay said: ldquo;I was very impressed with how hard everyone worked to give us the finished DVD. For the scenarios, some of the staff turned out to have some real natural talent.”

Among the staff who talked about their experiences were Jackie Blease, manager of the Fairfield neonatal unit, Dr Brigid Hayden, a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology at Fairfield, Elaine Nicholls, a senior physiotherapist at Fairfield, Deborah Bancroft, superintendent physiotherapist at Fairfield, and Michelle Chevreau, a patient and relative support worker at North Manchester General Hospital.

Staff involved in the role-play sessions also included Julia Riley, A&E manager at North Manchester General Hospital, Andrea Fielding, a sister at NMGH A&E, Peter Horan, charge nurse at NMGH A&E, and Mandy McPheat of the Trust’s continuing professional development team.