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The communication challenge in this example was about the subtext of what a patient says and does. What else may be going on? Anytime we think a patient is noncompliant or in denial the next thought we have should be why? It may be what we think it is — straight out denial or a patient wants to do things their own way. Or it could be something else, something off our radar, something that requires a little more digging.
Jill did finish her treatment. After a brief hospitalization her family, who she had kept at bay, stepped forward and helped her with decisions and her care at home. She had managed to seem like she was holding together in her interaction with them. Noncompliance is not always what it seems.
Ann Brady is the symptom management care coordinator at the Cancer Center, Huntington Hospital, Pasadena, California.
