Breaking bad news to fake patients...

(Credit: Nodovisual.net)

...only works when the prewritten vignettes actually contain some bad news. Needing to perform a biopsy =/= bad news.

Student: Ma'am, I'm sorry to be the one to deliver this news, but your mammogram shows a mass in your breast that was not there a year ago. We are going to have to do a biopsy to determine what is going on.
Fake patient: Oh my god. Do I have cancer?!?
Student: I cannot tell you definitely at this time what is going on. As I said, this mass is new and we need to do a biopsy to find out what it is. I can tell you that there is less than a 50% chance that it is cancer, but we just won't know for certain until we obtain a biopsy.
Fake patient: ...So what you're telling me is that you don't know what it is.
Student: Correct.
Fake patient: But it could be cancer.
Student: Yes. We need to do a biopsy to find out. I understand that you must be very anxious and nervous, but there's no point in panicking until we know for sure, right?
Fake patient: Okay, I guess we have to do the biopsy then.
Student: Indeed. Let's schedule it for later this week.
Fake patient: Okay.

And there goes 2 hours of my morning.
What a waste.