Situations of using white lie during patient care: a qualitative study into nurses’ perspectives

Abstract

Background: Receiving accurate and complete information about diagnosis, prognosis, and treatments is among patients’ rights in healthcare systems. Although all healthcare providers have the same viewpoint about truth-telling in the process of treatment, sometimes truths are not told to patients or they are told a “white lie”. The aim of the study was to explore nurses’ experiences of the situations of using white lie during patient care. Methods: This qualitative descriptive study was conducted in 2018. Participants were eighteen hospital nurses purposively recruited with maximum variation from ten hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Sampling and data collection were continued up to data saturation. Data analysis was done concurrently with data collection through conventional content analysis. Results: Situations of using white-lie-telling by nurses during patient care resulted in eleven subcategories and four main categories. The main categories of the study were the crisis of hope, bad news, cultural diversity, and nurses’ limited professional competence. Conclusion: Professional knowledge, skills, and experience are needed for establishing effective communication with patients and providing them with accurate information even about bitter truths. Nurses’ communication with patients needs to be established based on adequate knowledge about the cultures of patients and healthcare organizations, and should aim to maintain patients’ hope and motivation for treatments and, should help them make accurate decisions.