Difficult news and the standpoint of pediatric oncologists: a bibliographical review

In order to discuss and understand the experiences of oncologists faced with the task of communicating difficult news to children and their close family members, a bibliographical review was conducted in the Virtual Health Library databases containing the literature published by PubMed, Lilacs, Scielo, Scopus and SciVerse with input on the theme. The articles available evaluated by thematic analysis reveal the following aspects: the lack of studies focusing on the perception of professionals about imparting difficult news; communication as a strategy by which psychosocial, cultural, bioethical, legal and emotional aspects are handled; that more is expected from physicians than they were trained for. It was also seen that the information and training of professionals in strategies regarding how to handle the communication of difficult news needs to be ongoing in order to keep up with the dynamism of the occurrences and the physician-patient relations in the oncological field in which patients tend to be or feel under constant life-threatening conditions.