Truth Telling in Nurse-Patient Relationship - Essay Example

Nursing care is not just defined by the performance of nursing functions with utmost care and diligence but that it moves toward the moral perception and awareness of nursing care. With this shift in the appreciation of nursing care – from the performance of duties to the moral perception of nursing care - the centrality of the nurse-patient relationship becomes more poignant and pivotal in the understanding of nursing (Gastmans et al, 1998; Covington 2005). In the context of nursing care perceived not just as a performance of duty but as a moral awareness, nurses rise up to the demands of care, respect and achieving the goal of holistic well-being for the patient.

Thus, the nurse-patient relationship opens a “comportment of the self towards others, which has the inherent goal of enhancing the existence of those others” (van Hooft 1999, p 190). However, the nurse-patient relationship is often plagued with quandaries that time and again challenge nursing care. One of these dilemmas that nurses have to contend with as they practice the profession day in and day out is truth-telling in the context of patients undergoing palliative chemotherapy. Recognizing the importance of truth-telling in the nurse-patient relationship and the dilemma that nurses frequently encounter with it, this paper will look into the concept of truth-telling in relation to patients undergoing palliative chemotherapy.

In lieu of the significance of truth-telling in the nurse-patient relationship, this paper aims to understand the intricacies of truth-telling vis-a-vis the nurse-patient relationship. It intends to gain a deeper comprehension of utilitarianism, deontology and the four basic ethical principles of justice, autonomy, non-malfeasance and beneficence. Finally, to attain a clearer comprehension of the impact of truth-telling in the nurse-patient relationship in the cancer setting (palliative chemotherapy).

As this paper will look into the concept of truth-telling vis-a-vis nurse-patient relationship in the context of palliative chemotherapy, the paper will deal only be dealing with truth-telling in the cancer setting with the primary focus on the nurse-patient relationship within this framework.