Application of Spike’s Protocol in Emergency and Intensive Care Unit While Delivering Death News to the Patient’s Attendant in a Tertiary Care Hospital in New Delhi, India

Declaring the news of the death of a loved one is the most difficult and stressful part faced by a healthcare professional. This requires patience, good communication skills, and empathy. The bad news can be delivered in various ways but the most common method used in this study is the SPIKES protocol. The SPIKES protocol is a six-step process used to deliver bad news in a healthcare setup. The aim of this study is to discover the use of SPIKES protocol by healthcare professionals, especially in Emergency rooms and Intensive care units. All the healthcare professionals working in the ER and ICU of the hospital in Max Super Speciality Hospital, Shalimarbagh, New Delhi were included in this study. The study included a total of 100 active participants across the Emergency and ICU departments of the hospital. The major participants were female (68) when compared to male (32). Only 52% of the participants knew about the SPIKES protocol, its application and use and adequate details about it. The study also shows the need for separate counselling rooms to make this procedure smoother and safer for healthcare professionals to avoid any unwanted aggression from the patient's relatives.