The Importance Of Truth Telling

In simple terms, truth telling is about being honest with patients. This means telling patients about their diagnoses, treatments and other medical information completely. Ideally health professionals would always be able to do so, but there are times where it may be best to be untruthful rather. In some cultures for instance, serious diagnoses are typically hidden from patients because of how damaging they can be to patients. Complicating this, untruthfulness comes in various degrees (Lo, 1995), so doctors must discern the level of untruthfulness appropriate for a given situation.

I have chosen to write on this topic for this very reason. It is complex, but will always be relevant throughout any health professional's future career, so it is important to reflect on the issue and gain a good grasp of it. Not only that, but it is highly relevant to personal life, making it a useful universal skill to develop.

Apart from how much to tell, an important aspect of truth telling is time. When is it a good time for the truth? Different

Truth telling is much about working with patients. If you are able to build up a good doctor-patient relationship with a patient such that they trust you and are more receptive to your advice, you will be able to tell truths more often. Similarly, truth telling can be helped by setting up situations where the truth is easier for patients to handle. It is akin to chipping away at any strong beliefs of patients so that they will be more open to other ideas. I also have learnt about the importance of considering the future impact of truth telling in discerning the appropriateness of telling the truth in a given situation. There are indeed times when it may be best to be untruthful for the time being, and hopefully you can be more truthful later on if there is a more appropriate situation, that you have thoughtfully helped bring