NURSING DILEMMA : TRUTH-TELLING IN TERMINAL CARE PATIENT INTRODUCTION:
Cancer is one of the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in Singapore. In fact, top 5 leading cause of cancers breast cancer 63.4%, colorectal 38.7%, lung 33.8%, prostate 28.1% and liver cancer 16.6%. Based on statistics, there is an increasing number of death related to cancer each year. Nowadays, people tend to be more cautious about cancer and involve in self awareness program. Patients understanding about cancer means "death" and most likely need to hide the diagnoses to them.. "It 's very unpleasant to tell the patient that they have a terminal illness. One can understand why most doctors and nurses neglect this duty" (Varga,1980). Few things need to consider when telling to patients and patients family with regards to their prognosis like patients reactions or emotions and even financial resource. Health care professional are expected to give the detailed information to their client whether it is desirable or undesirable news. But on the other hand, they need consider whether telling truth would help or make situations more worst. Ethical dilemma among health care professional arises, either telling the truth or withholding the truth would benefit the patient.
In health care settings, truth telling about terminal care is a common ethical dilemma: either by telling truth or withholding the truth is the main concern. More often, doctors and nurses work closely