Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2000. These questions demand answers that will shape how patients relate to their illnesses.
Prognosis affects their lifestyle choices, health care decisions, and overall outlook.
Yet, many physicians dread responding to such questions. It seems natural that we should wish to avoid sharing bad news. Offering a grim prognosis forces us as physicians to deal with a patient's grief and confront our own sense of futility. Furthermore, patients may not wish to hear what we have to tell them. Yet, even when the outlook is optimistic, discussing an uncertain future makes us cautious.