Truth-telling to the seriously ill child – Nurses’ experiences, attitudes, and beliefs
Journal article
El Ali, Mandy, Licqurish, Sharon, O'Neill, Jenny and Gillam, Lynn. (2024). Truth-telling to the seriously ill child – Nurses’ experiences, attitudes, and beliefs. Nursing Ethics. 31(5), pp. 930-950. https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330231215952
Authors | El Ali, Mandy, Licqurish, Sharon, O'Neill, Jenny and Gillam, Lynn |
---|---|
Abstract | Background: Nurses play an integral role in the care of children hospitalised with a serious illness. Although information about diagnostics, treatments, and prognosis are generally conveyed to parents and caregivers of seriously ill children by physicians, nurses spend a significant amount of time at the child’s bedside and have an acknowledged role in helping patients and families understand the information that they have been given by a doctor. Hence, the ethical role of the nurse in truth disclosure to children is worth exploring. Methods: A systematic academic database and grey literature search strategy was conducted using CINAHL, Medline Psych Info, and Google Scholar. Keywords used included truth, children, nurse, disclosure, serious illness, and communication. A total of 17 publications of varying types were included in the final data set. Ethical Considerations: As this was a review of the literature, there were no direct human participants. Empirical studies included in the review had received ethics approval. Results: Of the 17 articles included in the review, only one directly reported on the experiences of nurses asked to withhold the truth from patients. Empirical studies were limited to HIV-positive children and children diagnosed with cancer and the dying child. Conclusion: A paucity of literature exploring the experiences, attitudes, and beliefs of nurses with regard to truth-telling to seriously ill children is evident. Little consideration has been given to the role nurses play in communicating medical information to children in a hospital setting. The 17 articles included in the review focused on cancer, and HIV, diagnosis, and end-of-life care. Further research should be undertaken to explore the experiences and attitudes of nurses to clinical information sharing to children hospitalised with a wide range of serious illnesses and in diverse clinical scenarios. |
Keywords | Ethical challenges; nurse; disclosure; lying; truth-telling; topic areas; ethics and children in care; adolescent; literature review; empirical approaches; ethics of care/care ethics; theory/philosophical perspectives; clinical ethics |
Year | 01 Jan 2024 |
Journal | Nursing Ethics |
Journal citation | 31 (5), pp. 930-950 |
Publisher | Sage Publications Ltd. (UK) |
ISSN | 0969-7330 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330231215952 |
PubMed ID | 38128903 |
Web address (URL) | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09697330231215952 |
Open access | Open access |
Research or scholarly | Research |
Page range | 930-950 |
Publisher's version | License File Access Level Open |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
Online | 21 Dec 2023 |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 22 Oct 2024 |
Additional information | © The Author(s) 2023 |
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). | |
Place of publication | United Kingdom |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/9105z/truth-telling-to-the-seriously-ill-child-nurses-experiences-attitudes-and-beliefs
Download files
Publisher's version
OA_El_Ali_2023_Truth_telling_to_the_seriously_ill.pdf | |
License: CC BY-NC 4.0 | |
File access level: Open |
3
total views2
total downloads0
views this month0
downloads this month