Rationale
Truth telling is an essential component to every patient or professional encounter and a basic ethical behavior in a physician’s daily practice.
Key Objectives
Given a patient or professional encounter, the candidate must honestly and accurately convey relevant information and explanations to patients, their families and other members of the health care team.
Enabling Objectives
Given a patient or professional encounter, the candidate will
- adhere to the legal and ethical basis for truth telling;
- ascertain the personal and cultural context of the patient or professional situation;
- communicate effectively (e.g., using language adapted to the situation, checking for understanding);
- identify challenging situations and communicate accurately and effectively in such circumstances (e.g., delivering bad news, addressing medical error);
- recognize when it is necessary to disclose personal beliefs or values that could be in conflict with patient choices.
