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

1. adhere to the legal and ethical basis for truth telling;

2. ascertain the personal and cultural context of the patient or professional situation;

3. communicate effectively (e.g., using language adapted to the situation, checking for understanding);

4. identify challenging situations and communicate accurately and effectively in such circumstances (e.g., delivering bad news, addressing medical error);

5. recognize when it is necessary to disclose personal beliefs or values that could be in conflict with patient choices.