Question

The case involves an elderly couple who are both in a nursing home. The husband has a heart attack and the wife is brought from another floor. Before she can get to the room, the man dies, but to spare the woman pain, the staff allows her to think that he is still alive when he gets to the room. In that she is frail and feeble, with poor eyesight, she does not know that she is dead. The woman is then told that her husband’s respiration is growing weaker and that he appeared to have been waiting for her before he died. As she leaves the room, she tells the staff that she is so glad he waited for her so that she could see him alive one more time.

           Truth telling (veracity) is a basic principle in health care delivery—do you think the staff’s “little-white-lie” is justified in this case? Ex[plain your answers. (15 points)

Answer 1

Answer

Never ever can justify the lying to a patient that does not respect the autonomy or right of self governance of the patient and it can compromise any future relationships and trust about the patient may have with health care providers.

Because the relationships are built on trust, lying, even little white lies easily erodes trust. Benevolent deception is the name given to the practice of withholding information from a patient because of the Nurse belief that the information may harm the individual.

The interactive health care relationship between patient and Nurse functions most effectively when both parties are truthful and adhere to all promises made in the process.

Here the nurse used little white lie,that is for patient goodness but by considering the ethics it cannot be justify but considering humanitarian consideration the little white lie is acceptable.