Good article in the NY Times as their reporter Denise Grady talks aobut her sister’s experience with cancer, as well as other patients and their interactions with doctors.
Research supports the idea that a few kind words from an oncologist — what used to be called bedside manner — can go a long way toward helping people with cancer understand their treatment, stick with it, cope better and maybe even fare better medically.
“It is absolutely the role of the oncologist” to provide a bit of emotional support, said Dr. James A. Tulsky, director of the Center for Palliative Care at Duke University Medical Center.
But in a study published last month in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dr. Tulsky and other researchers found that doctors and patients weren’t communicating all that well about emotions.
The researchers recorded 398 conversations between 51 oncologists and 270 patients with advanced cancer. They listened for moments when patients expressed negative emotions like fear, anger or sadness, and for the doctors’ replies.
A response like “I can imagine how scary this must be for you” was considered empathetic — a “continuer” that would allow patients to keep expressing their emotions. But a comment like “Give us time; we are getting there” was labeled a “terminator” that could shut the patient down.
The team found that doctors used continuers only 22 percent of the time. Male doctors were worse at it than female ones: 48 percent of the men never used continuers, as opposed to 20 percent of the women.
Surprisingly, Dr. Tulsky said, the patients didn’t bring up emotions that often — in only 37 percent of the conversations.
“That’s extraordinary,” he said. “These are advanced cancer patients.”
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