As physicians, I believe one of the most important things is to “have hope”. Sometimes “hope” can have different forms eg. believing in healing, “go big or go home”
Even though having a good understanding of the overall prognosis, and counselling the families/children on the likelihood of certain outcomes medicine is still very unpredictable.ie Patients that look good on paper do not survive, and vice versa.
Perhaps I/we attach certain treatment options to the hope of survival/beating the odds. I find it difficult to “reprogramme” myself when the goal of treatment has changed, even when I realise that it is in the best interest of the patient- perhaps just a health care worker grieving process?
In the end, we will do what the patient needs, but there is still a cost to us.
