PERAN KELUARGA DALAM MENDUKUNG PASIEN DENGAN PENYAKIT TERMINAL: PELAJARAN DARI BANYUMAS – JAWA TENGAH

Delivering bad news is considered one of the hardest parts of communication between doctor and patient.  Thus patients and families have the right to understand their actual health condition.  Delivering bad news could lead to an uncomfortable situation when the patients and their families showed negative reactions to the conversation.  Moreover, such a situation could lead to a negative experience and could develop into a bad emotional experience between doctor and patient.  Communication problems are identified as the main factor in delivering bad news. On the other side, culture, the main factor that determines the result of communication, would play an important role in this situation.  This paper aimed to explore the family’s role in the process of delivering bad news from physicians to their patients.  Qualitative methods were conducted in this paper using in-depth interviews with 7 family members of patients in a terminal condition.  The result showed several themes, which are the role of the family in maintaining patients’ emotional and psychological condition, the role of the family as an important person to rely on (in terms of medication), family as decision-maker who determines the therapy for patients and also play a role in communication between doctor and patients.