Introduction:

Most instruments to assess physicians’ delivery of bad news have been developed for patients with cancer and then adapted to other contexts. In clinical practice, some news may not be considered bad by the physicians but may have an important negative impact on the patients’ life. Yet, instruments to assess this communication across diverse clinical settings are needed.

Objective:

To develop, from the patients’ perspective, an instrument to assess how physicians deliver bad news in clinical practice.

Method:

This study was conducted using an exploratory qualitative approach by means of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 109 patients from two referral hospitals in Brazil. Content analysis was used to generate categories, from which the initial instrument items were developed. The clarity and relevance of the items were evaluated by a committee of 11 medical professionals and 10 patients.

Results:

The instrument included items about the physicians’ attitudes, such as attention, respect, and sincerity, as well as items about sharing information using language that patients could understand. The initial instrument had 19 items, answered in a 5-point Likert scale with labeled endpoints. After evaluation by the committee of judges, 2 items were modified, and 3 were excluded. The final instrument thus had 16 items.

Conclusion:

A new 16-item instrument was developed from the patients’ perspective to assess physicians’ delivery of bad news. After additional validation, this instrument may be useful in real and diverse bad news settings in clinical practice.

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