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Benjamin Freedman, PhD
Montreal, Quebec

Arch Intern Med. 1994;154(2):226.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

I appreciate Karlawish's comments. In speaking with patients, as in any other medical intervention, it is necessary to distinguish between the substance and the manner of the intervention. Given that a venipuncture is needed, how will it be done? Students performing their first can be observed to fall prey to equal and opposite errors: the timorous, tentative probe, or the bold, overconfident jab. Both commonly miss their mark and need to be repeated; neither approach does the patient a favor. Once the need for truth-telling is established—as explained in my article,¹ a medical intervention that should be within the patient's control—the art of medicine will lie in learning how to perform this task in a humane and effective manner. . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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