en Clinical Medicine Clinical Medicine مقاله پژوهشی Original Research Article <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="color:#ffffff;"><strong><span style="background-color:#008080;">&nbsp;Background and Objective:</span></strong></span> The ability of breaking bad news to patients, especially to patients diagnosed with cancer is one of the challengeable issues in the field of medicine. On this basis, this study was designed to assess physicians&#39; performance as well as importance of their training on how to deliver bad news to patients diagnosed with cancer.<br> <span style="color:#ffffff;"><strong><span style="background-color:#008080;">&nbsp;Materials and Methods:</span></strong></span> This was a prospective cross-sectional study for assessing physicians&rsquo; performance in delivering bad news. The hematologists and oncologists from Imam Khomeini and Shariati hospitals, Tehran, Iran, were included in the study. A questionnaire for physicians (SPIKES model) which comprised six statements was used to evaluate their performance. The time of breaking the cancer diagnosis news to the patients by the physicians and educational records were evaluated with the average score of the physicians in relation to each statement.<br> <span style="color:#ffffff;"><strong><span style="background-color:#008080;">&nbsp;Results:</span></strong></span> Totally, 12 physicians participated in the study. There was no significant difference between the statements and age or gender (P>0.05); but there was a significant relationship between ending the discussion (conversation), summarizing the content, and using the word &quot;cancer&rdquo; during the conversation (P<0.05). Additionally, there was significant correlation between the time spent on informing the patient about the cancer diagnosis and concluding the discussion and summarizing the statements (P<0.05).<br> <span style="color:#ffffff;"><strong><span style="background-color:#008080;">&nbsp;Conclusion:</span></strong></span> Guidelines which are introducing the most harmless methods for delivering bad news with minimal negative effects on the patients&rsquo; mental health can be helpful for the medical staff, so that they can perform this important task with less stress and minimum complications for the patients.</span></span></p> Bad News, Cancer, Physician Performance 68 73 http://journal.zums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1588-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Farhad Shahi fshahi@yahoo.com 5200319475328460056055 5200319475328460056055 No Dept. of Hematology & Medical Oncology, Cancer institute, Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Seyed Amir Hossein Emami emamiami@yahoo.com 5200319475328460056056 5200319475328460056056 No Dept. of Hematology & Medical Oncology, Cancer institute, Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Mandana Shirazi mandana.shirazi@ki.se 5200319475328460056057 5200319475328460056057 No Dept. of Clinical Sciences and Education, Södersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Samira Mokhtari s.mokhtari63@gmail.com 5200319475328460056058 5200319475328460056058 No Dept. of Neonatology,School of Medicine, Mousavi Hospital, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran. Minoosh Moghimi mmoghimi@zums.ac.ir 5200319475328460056059 5200319475328460056059 No Dept. of Hematology & Medical Oncology,School of Medicine, Vali-e-Asr Hospital, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran. Sepehr Gohari sepehr_goharibdb@yahoo.com 5200319475328460056060 5200319475328460056060 No School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran Zahra Abbaspour Rad zahra_med2002@yahoo.com 5200319475328460056061 5200319475328460056061 No Dept. of Internal Medicine, Vali-e-Asr Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran Reza Mansouri rezamansouri93@yahoo.com 5200319475328460056062 5200319475328460056062 Yes Dept. of Hematology & Medical Oncology, Cancer institute, Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.