Breaking bad news related to terminal illnesses: protocol for a systematic review of the experiences and views of healthcare providers and patients in sub-Saharan Africa

Introduction Individuals are diagnosed with terminal/ chronic conditions on a daily basis globally. Unfortunately, a substantial proportion of the global disease burden of chronic illnesses is recorded within sub-Saharan Africa. Providing or receiving such news can be devastating and may be influenced by cultural preferences and contextual differences. Identifying existing trends and how such news is broken in sub-Saharan Africa will be relevant to identify and inform practice and future research. Methods and analysis This systematic review protocol was developed by following the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocol (PRISMA-P), and findings will be reported by following the guidelines and recommendations of PRISMA-2020. CINAHL, Global Health, MEDLINE, PubMed, Scopus, AJOL and APA PsycINFO will be searched for articles. Additional records will be gathered through reference harvesting in Google Scholar search. QualSyst will be used to assess the methodological quality of studies included. Thematic synthesis will be used to analyse and synthesise the findings from the eligible studies. Ethics and dissemination Due to the fact that systematic reviews focus on accessible and available literature without the direct involvement of human participants, ethical approval will not be sought. The completed review will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal and may be presented at health conferences. The important findings would be shared with stakeholders and those involved in developing and conducting training for health practitioners, all of whom are involved in breaking bad news. PROSPERO registration number CRD42025642707.