Preclinical students' views on knowing cancer diagnosis: a data-based class exercise

One way of tackling the problems of demonstrating the relevance of psychology to medical practice as well as to medically-inexperienced preclinical students is to elicit their views on topical issues and present them with a comparison of their own data and any available in the medical literature. In a survey of preclinical students' views on being told their diagnosis and prognosis in the hypothetical case of cancer, high agreement in the proportions wanting to be or not to be told was found between the responses of students and a sample of cancer patients reported by Kelly & Friesen (1950). The exercise served to demonstrate that the 'to tell or not to tell' debate is one in which students can also be involved.