![]() ![]() Ignoring people’s need for hope won’t make it go away. ![]() But this isn’t a tenable conclusion either. But they also worry about the opposite strategy: that not accurately providing all relevant medical information or putting too rosy a spin on that information could lead patients down a path of false hope, denying them the time and space to emotionally prepare themselves and their families for whatever awaits.Ĭaught in this bind, physicians are tempted to throw up their hands and conclude that addressing hope isn’t their job. On the one hand, they worry that sharing the whole truth about a medical situation might destroy their patients’ hopes, leading to despair. Oncologists and other physicians who care for seriously ill patients such as Melanie often find themselves entangled by such a predicament. That felt more honest, but wouldn’t Melanie’s hope be crushed?ĭr Tamika’s thoughts capture what we call ‘the double-bind of hope’. But, under these circumstances, wouldn’t it be less than totally truthful to talk about hope? Perhaps, Dr Tamika pondered, she should instead speak with Melanie about her goals for the time she had left, preparing her for the likely scenario that it would be only a matter of months. She had undoubtedly already uncovered the fact that long-term survival was achievable only in a relatively small percentage of cases. Surely someone as bright as Melanie had Googled pancreatic cancer and seen the adjectives (deadly, devastating) and the clichés (‘the tumour that gives oncology its reputation’) that go along with this particular malignancy. After 20 years in practice, it seemed like having these conversations had gotten only harder. Inside her office, Dr Tamika was reviewing the PET scans and mulling over what to say to Melanie. The agony catapulted her to seek medical attention and, within a week, the work-up was complete. She could deal with the unexplained weight loss and the yellow tint that had altered the colour of her eyes. Indeed, her personal and professional lives were textbook descriptions of how to use ingenuity and grit to overcome grim obstacles. Her drive had been easily identified by her supervisors, and she was continually rewarded with broader responsibilities. But she was a fighter and would not be deterred. ![]() Sitting there, her thoughts drifted back to her advisor in college, who cautioned her that it would not be easy to succeed in a male-dominated field. (daring, impudence)īursting in during the board meeting was quite audacious of you.Melanie, a 47-year-old partner at a top civil engineering firm in Boston, could not accept the fact that she was staring at tacky art in a physician’s waiting room. I can’t believe he had the audacity to steal my ideas and claim that they were his own. Her audacity, when confronted with what she viewed as needless homework, was seen by her teachers as a result of being spoiled. ![]() I can't believe he had the audacity to question my integrity in front of everyone. The essence of audacity and audacious is "having the bravery to do something that could offend others." Because of this, the word has both a positive (bravery, bold) connotation and a negative (rude, impudent, disrespectful) connotation. It would be audacious (bold and brazen) to make you spend all day in the city running errands, and you might quit because of the request. For a memory trick, note how audacity sounds like "all day city." Now, imagine your boss has the audacity (bravery and disrespect) to ask you to spend all day in the city, running petty errands for him, like picking up his dry cleaning and washing his car. The related adjective audacious refers to bold or brazen behavior, usually brazen. lack of respectīoldness, daring, impudence, insolence, brazennessĪudacious is derived from the Latin audere, "to dare." Think of daring or having the audacity to go where others fear to tread. aggressive or fearless boldness or daring 2. ![]()
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