Making treatment recommendations that meet your patient’s goals requires that they understand their condition. We use the following phrases to assess understanding when discussing a difficult diagnosis or prognosis.

“I have been doing a lot of the talking. Could you tell me what you are taking away about your heart condition?”

“Hearing about your biopsy and CT results can be hard to take in. What have you heard so far?”

“It would help me if I knew what you understand about your Parkinson’s disease at this time”

Patients and families sometimes need to hear about their condition more than once and in different language in order to make good decisions about their care.

For more information contact Dr. Leslie Estep, Dr. Anita Meyer, or Dr. Erika Pope at Hospice of the Northwest, 360-814-5550, or lestep@hospicenw.org, ameyer@hospicenw.org, or epope2@hospicenw.org.

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