An Educational Intervention for Teaching Bad News Communication in Dentistry: A Pilot Study in Italy

Objectives This pilot single-center, non-randomized, one-group pre–post study evaluated the effect of a structured educational intervention on undergraduate and graduate dental students’ self-perceived confidence in communicating bad news in dentistry. Methods The study was conducted at the Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Naples, Italy. 4th–6th year undergraduate and graduate students attended an in-person SPIKES-based training including pre- and post-training confidence questionnaires, an introductory lecture, two simulation videos, and group discussions. All analyses were two-sided at an α level of 0.05. Pre- and post-training responses were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test for paired ordinal data. Results A total of 100 undergraduate and 26 graduate students attended. The training program significantly increased students' confidence in communicating bad news: undergraduate students' levels of confidence increased statistically in 14 of the 16 scenarios ( p < 0.05 ), while for graduate students the item on treatment failure showed a statistically significant change from pre- to post-intervention ( p = 0.025 ). Conclusion The present training model increased students' self-confidence in delivering bad news in several topics in dentistry. Clinical Relevance The study highlights communicating bad news as a key educational need and supports the incorporation of this topic into dental curricula.