When Blake Nordstrom, one of the fourth-generation of his family to lead the Nordstrom department store chain, died in January at age 58, the extended family of Nordstrom customers and associates were not only saddened, but profoundly shocked. This was because less than a month before, when he announced he had lymphoma, Nordstrom added the heartening news that his doctors considered the cancer “treatable.” He expected to continue working through his treatment.
I was especially attuned to the word “treatable” in this story because I had just read a most revealing study; one that should serve as a red alert for anyone with a cancer diagnosis.
Researchers at Stanford University in California and Children’s Hospital of Minnesota set out to discover whether doctors and non-physicians attached different meanings to the word “treatable.” As an ER and ICU nurse and physician assistant for 25 years, I have long known that what doctors intend to communicate during a conversation and what patients take away often differ wildly. But this study’s revelations stunned even me.
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