Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Communication, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 23, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-122). Also issued in print.

Security analysts play a central role in the functioning of financial markets through their privileged position as intermediaries between firms and investors. Analyst activity is important to reduce information uncertainty but it is not unbiased. On the one hand, the literature shows that these sophisticated agents promote market efficiency by facilitating the incorporation of new information into stock prices. On the other hand, there is evidence that analysts underreact to negative information and that they tend to be optimistic about firms they follow. Recent studies show that the market does not assimilate immediately the disclosure of a first-time going-concern modified (GCM) audit report. This accounting event is part of a wide range of bad news events which investors are particularly inefficient at dealing with. My thesis explores how analysts deal with the GCM audit report and whether they facilitate the correct assimilation of such information into stock prices. In particular, I use a sample of 924 firms for which their auditors disclose a GCM audit report for the first-time between 01.01.1994 and 31.12.2005. I find that security analysts anticipate the publication of a first-time GCM audit report. My results show that within the one-year period before the GCM disclosure, security analysts downgrade the average recommendation for GCM firms from “buy” to “hold” whereas similar non-GCM firms maintain an average “buy” rating. A number of robustness tests confirm that this finding is not sensitive to the criteria used to select the non-GCM control firm. Moreover, analysts are more likely to cease coverage of GCM firms prior to the GCM event than for matched control firms. In addition, I show that analysts react to the publication of a GCM audit report by ceasing coverage of GCM firms. My results suggest that investors do not recognize an average “hold” recommendation for a stock of a firm immediately before the announcement of a GCM audit report as an unfavourable message even considering that it represents a downgrade from a previous “buy” rating. In particular, I find that the negative short-term market reaction to the publication of a GCM audit report is significantly higher for firms with pre-event analyst coverage compared to firms with no pre-event analyst coverage. This suggests that analyst activity may be misleading the market in terms of the saliency of pre-GCM unfavourable news by issuing “disconfirming opinions” to the market and thus increasing the “surprise” associated with the publication of a GCM audit report. In addition, I show that analyst post-GCM coverage does not increase the efficiency with which the market assimilates the GCM audit report into stock prices. In particular, I fail to find significant differences between the post-GCM return performance of covered firms compared to firms with no analyst coverage. However, I show that the percentage of covered firms following the GCM disclosure is significantly higher for those with best post-GCM return performance than for those with worst post-GCM return performance. This suggests that post-GCM return performance explains the decision of analysts to cover GCM firms but analyst coverage does not influence significantly the post-GCM return performance of such firms. Overall, my thesis contributes to the accounting and finance literature by showing that analyst activity is not providing investors with adequate value-relevant information for their investment decisions in the GCM bad news domain. Firstly, the reluctance of analysts to issue a clear unfavourable message about the stocks of GCM firms seems to explain why the “surprise” associated with the publication of a GCM audit report is greater for covered firms than for non-covered firms. Secondly, the tendency of analysts to cease coverage of GCM firms and the low level of analyst coverage following the GCM announcement may explain why analyst coverage does not reduce the magnitude of the post-GCM negative drift. As such, analyst contribution to the price-discovery process in this case is likely confined to firms with high levels of analyst coverage.

BACKGROUND: The ability to disclose bad news to patients is a complex and essential skill for health care providers. Although certain specialties have a higher incidence of engaging in these conversations, this task is done regardless of a provider’s discipline. There are many components to breaking bad news, some of which include finding a private setting, eliciting how much the patient wants to know, providing clear information, and responding to the patients’ emotional needs and reactions. As this task is associated with a large amount of emotional stress, the outcome of this exchange can have lasting impact on both the provider and patient. Unfortunately, patients are dissatisfied with how they receive bad news, and providers admit to lack of comfort and knowledge with this task. LITERATURE REVIEW FINDINGS: Studies show that inadequate education is main area for improvement. Fortunately, the ability to break bad news is a teachable and retainable skill. Didactic sessions, role-play, and small groups are some of the available models used to educate learners. There is promising evidence for the incorporation of SPs into various curricula, because they provide an opportunity for students to learn without compromising patient safety and allow for feedback useful to enhancing skills. PAs are valued health care providers who practice across a variety of specialties. As their education is similar to that of a medical student, and they practice autonomously under the supervision of a physician, it is equally important that they are able to successfully break bad news. However, there are few studies that examine the PA student curriculum for breaking bad news education. Furthermore, there are no studies that examine PA student competency with this skill. PROPOSED PROJECT: The goal of this study is to use a literature review to create a novel curriculum that employs SPs to increase PA students’ competencies for breaking bad news. CONCLUSIONS: An optimal curriculum intervention will include opportunities for feedback, discussion, and practice. SPs can help aid with many of these components, as well as assess interpersonal and technical components of breaking bad news. SIGNIFICANCE: It is expected that the results of this study will parallel those identified for medical students, and PA students’ skills will improve to meet the standards set forth by the ARC-PA. It is the hope that the results of this study will serve as an initial platform for future studies aimed at PAs’ ability to disclose bad news to patients.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Speech Pathology and Audiology, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 40-45).

<p>Vårt sätt att kommunicera med varandra är i hög grad situationsberoende. Ett tillfälle när samtalets form kan ha stor betydelse är i kontakten mellan läkare och patient och då speciellt när läkaren behöver förmedla tråkiga nyheter till patienten. I denna studie undersöktes faktorer som påverkar hur läkaren upplever sin förmåga att genomföra samtal med ”bad news” för patienten. Nio läkare på två sjukhus i Mellansverige intervjuades. När materialet analyserades induktivt genom meningskoncentrering framkom det att patientens ålder och personlighet tycks ha större inverkan än kön, och att anhöriga ansågs kunna vara både ett värdefullt stöd och en belastning för informationsgivningen i svåra samtal. Eftersom de flesta studier om svåra samtal inom vården bygger på uppgifter ur vårdpersonalens synvinkel diskuterades vikten av att i framtida studier fokusera patientens egna upplevelser.</p>

Vårt sätt att kommunicera med varandra är i hög grad situationsberoende. Ett tillfälle när samtalets form kan ha stor betydelse är i kontakten mellan läkare och patient och då speciellt när läkaren behöver förmedla tråkiga nyheter till patienten. I denna studie undersöktes faktorer som påverkar hur läkaren upplever sin förmåga att genomföra samtal med ”bad news” för patienten. Nio läkare på två sjukhus i Mellansverige intervjuades. När materialet analyserades induktivt genom meningskoncentrering framkom det att patientens ålder och personlighet tycks ha större inverkan än kön, och att anhöriga ansågs kunna vara både ett värdefullt stöd och en belastning för informationsgivningen i svåra samtal. Eftersom de flesta studier om svåra samtal inom vården bygger på uppgifter ur vårdpersonalens synvinkel diskuterades vikten av att i framtida studier fokusera patientens egna upplevelser.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:32:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-02-26Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:43:47Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 pereira_cr_dr_botfm.pdf: 962736 bytes, checksum: 6a3b10b7b3b5b70dd57a328288829c00 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Métodos de comunicação tem se mostrado úteispara minimizar o estresse do profissional de saúde e facilitar o processo de informar más notícias em saúde para os pacientes. Este trabalho tem por objetivo descrever um protocolo de comunicação (protocolo PACIENTE) e avaliar sua aceitação. Foram realizados treinamentos sobre comunicação de más notícias, onde o método PACIENTE foi apresentado. Após obtenção consentimento livre e esclarecido, distribui-se um questionário com 12 perguntas de múltipla escolha sobre a experiência pregressa em comunicação e sobre as impressões acerca de protocolo apresentado. Houve 200 participantes, sendo 100 médicos e 100 enfermeiros. Os temas considerados mais dificeis no processo de comunicação foram: falar sobre a morte (39,5%)... / Methods of communicationg bad news has been proven effective to minimize heath professionals' stress and easier the bad news disclosure to the patients. The objective of this research is to describe a communication protocol (PACIENTE) and evaluate its acceptance. The protocol PACIENTE was presented during trainings about bad news disclosure. After informed consent, a questionnaire of multiple choice responses was given to the participants concerning previous experiences in communication and about their impressions on the presented protocol. There were 200 participants, 100 doctors and 100 nurses. The most difficult points on the communicating bad news were: discuss death (39,5%), and... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

In this thesis, I study three aspects of sell-side analysts’ stock price forecasts, henceforth target prices: analyst teams’ target price forecast characteristics, analysts’ use of information to revise target prices, and determinants of target price disagreement between analysts.The first essay studies the target price forecast performance of team analysts in the UK and finds that teams issue timelier but not less accurate target prices. Unlike evidence from previous studies, my findings suggest that analyst teamwork may improve forecast timeliness without sacrificing forecast accuracy. However, market reactions to team target price revisions are not significantly different from those to individual analyst target price revisions, suggesting that although target prices issued by analyst teams are timelier and not less accurate than those of individual analysts, investors do not consider analyst team target prices more informative. I conjecture that analysts may work in teams to meet the demand to cover more companies while maintaining the quality of research by individual team members rather than to issue more informative reports.In the second essay, I study how analysts revise their target prices in response to new information implicit in recent market returns, stock excess returns and other analysts’ target price revisions. The results suggest that analysts’ target price revisions are significantly influenced by market returns, stock excess return and other analysts’ target price revisions. I also find that the correlation between target price revisions and stock excess returns is significantly higher when the news implicit in these returns is bad rather than good. I conjecture that analysts discover more bad news from the information in stock excess returns because firms tend to withhold bad news, disclosing it only when it becomes inevitable, while they disclose good news early. Using a new measure of bad to good news concentration, I show that the asymmetric responsiveness of target price revisions to positive and negative stock excess returns is significant for firms with the highest concentration of bad news but is insignificant for firms with the lowest concentration of bad news. I argue that firms with the highest concentration of bad news are more likely to withhold and accumulate bad news. The findings, therefore, support my hypothesis that analysts discover more bad news than good news from stock returns because firms tend to withhold bad news, disclosing it only when it is inevitable. The third essay examines the determinants of analyst target price disagreement. I find that while disagreement in short-term earnings and in long-term earnings growth forecasts are significant determinants, recent 12-month idiosyncratic return volatility has the strongest explanatory power for target price disagreement. The findings suggest that target price disagreement is driven not only by analyst disagreement about short-term earnings and long-term earnings growth, but also by differences in analysts’ opinions about the impact of recent firm-specific events on value drivers beyond short-term future earnings and long-term growth, which are eventually reflected in past idiosyncratic return volatility.

Effective physician-patient communication is primary to successful medical consultation and encourages a collaborative interactional process between patient and doctor. Collaborative communication, rather than one-way authoritarian, physician-led medical interview, is significant in navigating difficult circumstances such as delivering "bad news" to patients diagnosed with cancer. Additionally, the potential psychological effects of breaking bad news in an abrupt and insensitive manner can be devastating and long-lasting for both the patient and his or her family. The topic of delivering unfavorable news to patients is an issue that many medical professionals find to be challenging and is now getting the attention of medical professionals in many countries, including the former Soviet Union (FSU) republics. The limited literature on communication skills in oncology in the FSU republics supports that the physician-patient communication style is perceived as significantly physician-oriented rather than patient-oriented. More specifically, the Soviet medical education system, as well as post-graduate medical education, has placed little to no emphasis on physician-patient communication training. Physician-oriented communication leads to patients being less forthcoming and open regarding their own feelings about being diagnosed with cancer, which may exacerbate the overall communication problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the training program "Delivering Unfavorable News to Patients Diagnosed with Cancer" (Baile et al., 2000) conducted in Uzbekistan, one of the FSU republics. A total of 50 oncologists from the National Oncology Center of Uzbekistan (N = 50, n = 25 , n = 25 ) completed Self-Efficacy, Interpersonal skills (FIRO-B), Empathy (JSPE), and Physician Belief (PBS), and demographic instruments before, immediately after, and then two weeks after the training intervention. Results of MANOVA and bivariate statistical analyses revealed significant differences in self-efficacy, empathy, and PBS scores within the experimental group, but not within the control group, from pre-test to post-test. The follow-up data analysis suggested that participants maintained the level of change that occurred immediately after the training intervention.

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