Table 4.

Veterans’ responses to their clinician’s concerns about the pulmonary nodule

“Well she [primary care clinician] was reassuring in the sense she didn’t think that there was anything to be concerned about.” (Veteran L)

“I don’t think he [primary care clinician] made a big deal out of it. And neither did I.” (Veteran R)

“Well, it seemed like my doctor would be more concerned….She’s a good doctor…because she would call me back if it was serious. She wouldn’t just let me go.” (Veteran N)

“Yeah I didn’t know what that [the nodule] was so I didn’t concern myself. I went on vacation anyhow. I feel OK. I feel fine. If it’s something life-threatening or something like that, I’m sure I would have been notified…I trust the VA implicitly.” (Veteran K)

“It didn’t really dawn on me that it was important. I really didn’t think anything of it. They didn’t seem excited about it so I wasn’t….Well, I felt if they didn’t care about it, I didn’t care about it.” (Veteran F)

“They never gave me any reason to think that I should be concerned. They did say in there that they would follow up on this in maybe 6 more months. So I’ll get another CT scan so they can compare apples to apples.” (Veteran E)

“I’ve gotten good care. If it was something that was growing and my doctor would have said something and we would have discussed the best way to take care of it. We’ll know after this next CAT scan whether it’s growing or not. And if it isn’t then we’re doing everything fine. And if it’s growing, well then we’ll go from there.” (Veteran D)