Giving bad news

Dr. WhiteCoat: “Even when I know it’s cancer and I know the prognosis isn’t very good, I still tell the patient that we have to do more tests to make sure we know what’s going on. Part of me doesn’t want to make the patient give up hope. Part of me wants to ‘ease’ the patient into the diagnosis – give them time to accept it instead of just hitting them with a load of bricks all at once.”