What happens during that initial conversation?

I am writing a supplemental textbook for nursing students titled After the Diagnosis: How Patients React and How to Help them Cope, to be published by Cengage/Delmar in 2010.  (This is something I have been dreaming about for a long time, so Woo Hoo!!!)  The first chapter is focused on delivering the diagnosis to the patient.  While writing it, I thought about just how critical it is that the diagnosis be delivered with an understanding of, and sensitivity, the emotions of the person receiving the diagnosis.  So often, the stories I hear don’t give me a lot of confidence that this is indeed happening.  Patients need to know what’s going on with them, and medical professionals are charged with delivering the truth.  But when I hear about the news being dropped in a patient’s lap, and no discussion of how they are reacting emotionally, nor referrral to someone who can help them with this, I feel like I have a big job ahead of me.