Cancer awareness blogs

10 minutes or less

By Jaime

July 15, 2010

A good friend of mine sent me a link on Facebook to an article that was recently in the Los Angeles Times, about how doctors break the news that it’s cancer to their patients. The information in the article may or may not surprise you. 54 percent of patients received the news in person, 28 percent while in the hospital, and 18 percent by phone. But what really got to me was that almost half of patients – 45 percent – said that their conversation with the doctor was ten minutes or less. 10 minutes or less. For a life-altering conversation. In 31 percent of discussions between doctor and patient, treatment options were not mentioned, and 39 percent of patients were alone when they spoke to the doctor, with no support person.

I’ve seen this play out in different ways. When I worked in an ob/gyn office, I can remember bringing back an older woman who had just undergone a D&C for suspected endometrial cancer. The news was not good, which was why the doctor had her set up an appointment to discuss the results. As we were walking back, we were making small talk, and the woman told me that she knew she was about to hear bad news because the doctor wanted to see her in person – but because she liked and trusted the doctor, she felt like everything would be okay in the end. My grandmother received her breast cancer diagnosis over the phone; my aunt received her ovarian cancer diagnosis in the hospital. Some of my friends received their phone calls while at work, unable to have any privacy.

But it is the 10 minutes or less aspect that troubles me. For some doctors, breaking this news is routine, it is part of their job. Maybe they have to dissociate emotionally in order not to burn out. I can understand that on some level. But on another level, a human level, I find it unacceptable. This phone call or meeting will likely forever be a demarcation in someone’s life – the marking of a “before”, and an “after”. Life is never quite the same “after”. I’ve counseled people living with cancer and seen the impact on every aspect of an individual’s life. I get it, doctors are busy and our health care system doesn’t reward long visits with patients. But as someone who has seen loved ones go through this, maybe I am biased. It brings to mind the amazing movie “The Doctor”, when an arrogant oncologist gets his own cancer diagnosis and experiences firsthand what “the system” is like.

Is this study a small commentary on a larger problem – not just the health care system and what is valued monetarily, but on how medical training is conducted overall? Are doctors trained on the interpersonal, human aspects of sickness and wellness? Is this skill valued over book knowledge? I don’t have the answers to that, and if you ask medical students, doctors, and patients, you would get a wide variety of answers. I can’t help but wonder, though, if the problem goes much deeper than this…if this is an outgrowth of a problem at the foundation of creating doctors.

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