Dear Editor:I was interested to read the study using cancer survivors to teach medical students about breaking bad news. It is an excellent way of teaching this important topic to students, and equally important that the authors validated a checklist for the patient volunteers. One important error in this paper is the fact that this is not a novel approach to teaching bad news. We first used this approach in teaching residents in 2002, and found that residents who participated significantly changed their attitudes about expressing hope to the patient, starting by assessing the patient's understanding, and encouraging the patient to express their feelings.
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