Call me crazy, but at one point in my career I thought I wanted to be a doctor. I even made it to the interview room at the local medical university, apparently an achievement in itself. I was interviewed by a Dame, a Sir, and a Professor. I was twenty minutes into the interview when the scenario from hell was presented. I know I answered well, like a true nurse. They didn't want the best answer, which any experienced caring nurse could give, they wanted a 'doctor' answer.
How would you answer the following questions?

Scenario 1, part 1 I want you to imagine you are a young family doctor and you have a patient, a young man in his early twenties, who has been battling cancer for the last year. During that year he's tried every treatment that is available, often with awful side effects, but all to no effect. In fact he's been told that he will most likely die. Now, as the family doctor, you've just discovered a new treatment that only has a 50% chance of working. Regardless of whether the treatment works or not, it will have horrendous side effects, much worse than he has had yet. Now, what do you do? If you decide to tell him how do you go about this?

This was my questions. I won't give the answer I gave just yet as I'm curious as to how others' may answer. What I will say is that it was during the course of answering this scenario when I realized that I wouldn't succeed in being accepted into medical school.

I would inform the pt of this new option. But I would provide him with all the information he would need to have to made an informed consent or rejection to the treatment.

I find it often that patient's and their families are not fully informed of treatments they are told what I believe the Dr. wants them to know. Example hemodialysis, The expense of meds (min 1000 a month), the stress on family life styles, feeling like crap after the dialysis and just when you get to feeling better it is time for another treatment, Extreme dietary restriction, fluid restrictions, I was a dialysis tech before I became a nurse And I do not find that this treatment promotes quality of life but rather prolongs suffering.