Breaking Bad News: Case 2
You are a 25-year-old female medical student doing a rotation in an HIV clinic. Sara is a 30-year-old woman with advanced HIV who dropped out of college after she found that she contracted HIV from her husband, who has hemophilia. In talking to Sara, it turns out you share a number of things--you are from the same part of Montana originally, also have young children, and like to cook. Later in the visit, when you suggest that she will need some blood tests, she gets very angry and says, "What would you know about this?"
What happened?
Although the protocol for breaking bad news is helpful, it doesn't cover everything. There are instances when you may provoke a reaction from a patient because you remind them of someone else--or, as in this case, themselves. In these instances it can be helpful to step back, get another perspective (perhaps from someone in clinic who has known Sara), and try not to take this reaction too personally--even though it is likely that Sara will know how to really bother you.