Some patients may want to initiate family gatherings, prepare wills, travel to a special place, or make amends. By withholding important medical information, family members and doctors may be preventing the patient from taking these final actions. It s as simple as engaging in a two-way conversation with one s doctors and establishing one s expectations by asking and telling. Patients can ask doctors how information will be shared or tell doctors how they d like to receive news. The other part of asking and telling is that doctors can ask patients from the very beginning how they d prefer to hear good or bad news.
Physicians have an additional obligation to help patients deal with any difficult or bad news.
Beyond making the diagnosis, a physician s job is to provide information on what the patient can expect, refer the patient to support services and resources, and offer to help the patient work through the illness. And physicians should be able to do this without giving the impression that the patient and family are being demanding, which is something many patients and families fear.