Nursing and Truth-telling

In the modern world, every career faces a fair share of difficulties.

In this regard, nursing is not an exception. While carrying out their regular duties, doctors and nurses face ethical challenges. These moral concerns include the scarcity of medical supplies, medical futility, moral suffering, and stating the truth. This paper focuses on the importance of telling the truth in the healthcare system. The website www.hadassah.org was selected for the research since it offers extensive knowledge of telling the truth, making it a reliable source. The reader is able to clearly understand what the act of revealing the truth entails because it is explained in a real-life situation.

Nurses and Truth-Telling

Nurses always have the mandate to make decisions on what information to share with their patients. This is where truth-telling comes in a medical expert’s job. However, they are sometimes justified to hold information from the patient in certain scenarios(SURBONE, n.d.). These scenarios include when the patient is experiencing life-limiting diseases such as cancer and can be requested by a family member or the person affected. As the world continues to open up, this trend of keeping patients away from the truth is fading. Currently, many patients would prefer to be told the truth. When nurses lie to their patients, the nurse-patient relationship is in jeopardy (SURBONE, n.d.). This moment is one of the most difficult times in a nurse’s life. In this case, the nurse should consider cultural beliefs of the patients and ask them personally on how they would like to know about their illness (SURBONE, n.d.).

Health Care as a Human Right

A citizen has a human right to proper health care. It is a right since the government is responsible for making all the health facilities accessible to everyone. It should ensure healthy working conditions, sanitation, and adequate food. Moreover, the state must equitably and publicly finance the health sector for all. It should put up the right infrastructure to enable the public to be able to access these medical facilities. The health care system must be affordable and of high quality, guided by quality standards. To conclude, health care is a human right, and it has been listed in article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

References

SURBONE, A. (n.d.). Truth-telling. Retrieved October 4, 2017, from http://www.hadassah.org.il/media/2796846/truth_telling