If you had a serious illness, how much would you want to know about it? Dr. Rachel A. Freedman, an oncologist who specializes in breast cancer at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said she noticed a few years ago that many patients who were referred to her had little understanding of their disease or its treatment. There was hardly any published information on what patients knew about their own cancers, so Dr. Freedman and some colleagues decided to conduct a study. They asked 500 women four questions: Did they know the stage of their tumor, the grade (an indicator of how aggressive a cancer is), and whether it was fed by estrogen or a growth factor called HER-2?
In a social media landscape shaped by hashtags, algorithms, and viral posts, nurse leaders must decide: Will they let the narrative spiral, or can they adapt and join the conversation?
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