Medical doctors all over the world, on a daily basis, are faced with challenges of reporting bad news to either their patients or patients’ relatives or both. The task of reporting bad news is challenging since medical doctors are also human, full of emotions. Therefore, to come face-to-face with patients’ reactions to bad news makes such communication difficult. The profession demands that bad news must not only be told but also truthfully just as it is the case with professional news reporting. On the contrary, medical doctors in Nigeria and indeed, the world over do not receive communication training to facilitate their proper communication skills in readiness for this task at their undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Consequent upon this need, the paper has suggested among others, the inclusion of communication courses such as Pubic Relations, Expressive Communication, Rhetoric and Cross- Cultural Communication in medical curriculum for undergraduate studies.

^JCMRJournal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 1, No. 2,  October  2009, 137 – 145.

About the authors

*Aniefiok Udoudo, Ph.D., is a lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and Communication Studies, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

**Chisara C. Umezurike, B. Med. Sc., MBBS; FWACS, is a lecturer in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Nigerian Christian Hospital, Aba, Nigeria.

***Prof. Adeyinka Charles Adisa, MBBS; FWACS; FICS, is a lecturer in the Department of Surgery, Abia State University, Nigeria.

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Article Citation

Udoudo, A., Umezurike, C. C. & Adisa, A. C. (2009): Communicating bad news in medical practice: A challenge to curriculum planners. Journal of Communication and Media Research 1(2): 137 – 145.