The Importance of Truth-Telling

According to Higgs, one reason why a medical profession might withhold the truth from the patient is that : it may actually do harm through anxiety and distress that's produced after disclosing the truth. At times, truth-telling can lead to major/acute distress or long term disability. There can also be times where distress and fear can lead to a more severe condition of an illness or even causing a patient to deny the treatment. In either way, there is a high chance that the worsening of the illness may occur after a physician disclosing the truth to his/her

Atul Gawande in his article “When the Doctor Makes Mistakes” exposes the mystery, uncertainty and fallibility of medicine in true stories that involve real patients. In a society where attorneys protect hospitals and physicians from zealous trials from clients following medical errors, doctors make mistakes is a testimony that Gawande a representative of other doctors speak openly about failures within the medical fields. In this article, Gawande exposes those errors with an intention of showing the entire society and specifically those within the medicine field that when errors are hidden, learning is squelched and those within the system are provided with an opportunity to continue committing the same errors. What you find when you critically analyse Gawande, “When Doctors Make Mistakes essay is how messy and uncertain medicine turns out to be. Throughout the entire article you experience the havoc within the medicine field as the inexperienced doctor misapplies a central line in a patient.

The ethical conflict presented at Paradise Hills Medical Center (PHPM) was about truth telling. The factors that contributed to the ethical conflict were: (i) patients were labeled as “terminal”, so the physicians felt it was going to be counterproductive to patients’ health to know about the medical error. (ii) Physicians were more worried about the consequences that the oncology program would have than the right of the patient to know about the possible implications of radiation overdosing.

Honesty is also one of ethical consideration, a very important value and must be followed within health and social care practice because honesty is a way also how people will treat you as a person, if you started dishonesty to that person they won’t believe you in the end and honesty also an expectation of individuals receiving health and social care service. That’s why in this organisation being trustworthy and truthful to others is a fact working in health and social care setting.

Goldman brings up a more controversial situation in which the physician effectively deceives the patient by withholding information pertaining to the patients’ medical condition from the patient himself. He maintains that the right to be told the truth is not innate, and just as in the case of coercion, it must be determined whether the information might be detrimental to the patients’ health directly or whether it might affect

Currently, most people generally accept a doctor’s word as truth and do not question him or her. When it comes to the medical field, patients can often feel overwhelmed by all the confusing medical terms being thrown at them, so they tend to sit back and do as the doctor says. Healthcare professionals sometimes take advantage of this fact and withhold important information from their patients. For instance, a study conducted by Lisa Lezzoni, MD, and her peers states that more than half of physicians lied to their patients about their diagnosis to put a more positive spin on it (Lezzoni, Rao, DesRoches, Vogeli, and Campbell). Healthcare professionals should disclose to the patient any information pertaining to the patient.

Canada is a multicultural country. Healthcare providers, therefore, face certain challenges associated with this. The CMA Code of Ethics recommends that “physicians provide patients with whatever information that will, from the patient's perspective, have a bearing on medical care decision-making and communicate that information in a way that is comprehensible to the patient.” [1]. This statement has a very important message, which implies that the truth telling is not a mandatory burden that every patient must endure but rather a stage-like process delivered by a healthcare provider and guided by the patient.

First, disclosure of information to the patient will sometimes increase the likelihood of depression and physical deterioration, or result in the choice of medically inoptimal treatment. Second, disclosure of information is therefore sometimes likely to be detrimental to the patient’s health, and perhaps hasten his death. Third, health and prolonged life can be assumed to have priority among preferences for patients who place themselves under physicians’ care. Fourth, Worsening health or hastening death can therefore be assumed to be contrary to patients’ own true value orderings. Lastly, paternalism is therefore justified: doctor may sometimes override patients’ prima facie rights to information about their risks and treatments or about their own conditions in order to prevent harm (Vaughn, 96.)

Truth-telling is an important issue within the nurse-patient relationship. Nurses make decisions on a daily basis regarding what information to tell patients. The specific issue in question is whether a nurse should abide by the Code of Ethics for Nurses by revealing the truth to the patient or refrain from telling the truth to the patient because they are respecting the wishes of the patient’s family. Nurses and health care professionals should always tell the truth to their patients unless the patient forgoes their rights to autonomy or cannot think for themselves. By providing the patient with the truth, they allow the patient to come to terms with their conditions and give them the options for further treatment.

Disclosing medical errors is considered necessary by patients and practitioners. They are advised to disclose in the form of an apology when necessary and appropriate. When a medical error causes damage to the patient, it seen as not acceptable because a patient goes for treatment in order to get better not to get worse therefore it calls for the situation to be addressed. When a medical error is not disclosed, the fellow peers who have witnessed the error must decide whether they should remain silent and keep the error to themselves or reveal the error to the higher up, although it would be in good faith to report the medical error to a higher up, unless it has caused harm or long-term damage to the patient. (Youngson. p. 69) There are many hospitals that the practitioners keep the errors made to themselves and do not disclose the medical errors to the families of patients or the patients themselves. Medical errors become a topic of conversation if the family of a patient or the patient themselves become aware about the error. Medical errors are something that should be disclosed in a good faith manner

All Christians, at some point, are confronted with whether to lie in any given circumstance. Healthcare professionals, however, are confronted with circumstances in which a lie might be equivalent to killing a patient under their care due to that deception. Thankfully, Scripture has many absolutes, commandments, and guideline introduced in the Bible that will give answers when Christians get themselves confronted with instability. The Bible can be guide, not only for regular Christians trying to do what is right, but also for healthcare professionals who are having difficulty in deciding what to do when deception is an option. The bible can help guide healthcare professionals while maintaining a strategic distance from patient damage that may require the utilization of deceptive nature. Two such events that may emerge are supporting a patient in recuperation through the use of fake, or placebo, treatment and keeping a patient that is in critical condition ignorant of auxiliary sicknesses. LINSTRA!!!!!!

Gawande’s personal experience shows that it is sometimes necessary to lie to patients for the greater good. When Gawande’s son comes to the hospital with a critical heart condition, he is cared for by many doctors but specifically one fellow is there by his side caring for him. Gawande knew full well that the resident needed to train to gain experience: “But I was not torn about the decision. This was my child. Given a choice, I will always choose the best care for him. How can anybody be expected to do

However, a Kantian doctor will say that is immoral and he should tell the truth about the person’s diagnosis. It is the duty of the doctor to be honest to his/her patients. Also, we should respect a patient’s own right to decide for his/her life. We cannot use the patient as mean to achieve other ends which is the greatest happiness of the people involved. One may argue that utilitarian consider long term consequences if doctor lie. Although this is true, we must not forget sometime long term consequence is not uncovered. When long term consequences are not known, we cannot make a moral decision, where as Kant’s approach concern about the duty of doctor instead of outcome of the action.

Yeo (2010) point out that the possibility to retain some information from patients has been ordered for long in Australian law, as in other countries for the benefit of the patient. This has now been combined with the greater autonomy acknowledged to the patient in many jurisdictions. Although a clinical approach reveals that loyalty should guide the patient-physician relationship, there are still some situations in which information consent and truth telling may be controversial: in some circumstances, the physician should or may not tell the truth. The case at hand poses a dilemma regarding the right to know (Cherry & Jacob 2008).

Lying in medicine seems to be a requirement for doctors because they think that truthful information can hurt patients (Bok 222). According to doctors, while they are telling the truth, patients may have a heart attack or their psychological mechanism might be alleged. Furthermore, death comes more quickly. However, these are so rare and considering these universal is an overgeneralization. In addition, doctors consider their patient as a child and see them like a blind, suffering and passive toy (M.Smith and M.Weil 22); hence, doctors think that they can make choices for their patients without telling the truth to patients. However, this opinion just shows doctors’ paternalistic view (Bok 227).