Do you tell the patient about her critical condition or not?

Two theories are working in this direction: 1. Western theory that the patient should be told of exact happening and details of each of the medicines prescribed and its side effects. 2. In India, most doctors do not tell the patient the gravity of the situation, though they tell the relatives and friends of the patient. The idea behind it is to help the patient gain confidence to be able to face the situation and sometimes, the confidence alone will make the patient to regain. I have faith in combination of both. Doctors should tell at appropriate time about the condition and the steps taken to overcome the problem. In any case, the expense part should never be told when one is undergoing the treatment when it is not covered under insurance.

id rather reveal the true conditon of the patient. Knowing the truth will surely shock that person concerned and HELP the family as well. If im the patient, id rather know my true condition than be left in the dark. atleast, i know what im going to face and still have the chance to look for all viable solution to my illness/disease.

If I was the patient I would want to know and I would also want people to treat me the same as when I was well so i would like to thik that I would be able to talk openly about a persons conditions.

It depends on the patient. Some people need to know so they can get their life in order. Others who already have everything in order and are too emotional or anxious I would have second thoughts about telling them. Some people would worry their last few days on earth away and that would be heartbreaking.

YES! You most DEFINITELY tell the patient about their critical condition. It is THEIR body and THEIR life. They have the right to know about it. It is WRONG to keep such things secret from a person. i know when i was in the hospital for the 2 years, i NEEDED to know every little thing that was going on. A lot of the nurses wanted to hide things from me, but my mother always told me what was going on becuase she knew i had the right to know.

You've already told us =) so you can't keep it to your self now. But seriously, it would be better if you are going to tell the truth so that she will be aware. She'll get benefit if you tell her.

I won't tell the patient what he is really suffering from if the disease is something like cancer which it is really hard to cure at these day.Instead of telling the truth,i would like to tell a lie euphemstically.Knowing about the critical disease is not good to the patient.Some patient will be shocked and broken down in a second as soon as he heard about his condition.Many of them lose their desires of living.Maybe some diseases can't be cured at present but at least we can improve the quality of living of the patients.That is what the doctor try everyting to do .

From my point of viev it is always good to tell the pt. regarding his/her illness.First he/she get depressed but then he/she realise about condition which he/she is facing,& would like to tell others why this happen & what kind of precaution can someone take if they do not want to suffer from the same.ALWAYS BE HEALTHY & HELP TO KEEP OTHERS HEALTHY.

Yes, I will tell their condition even if it will cause so much pain. Its their right to know.... If you may ask, I am a nursing student and I learn that we should not give false hope to the patient.... It is either the doctor will tell the patient their condition and they can take it or refuse it or to their immediate relatives.... Sometimes it is more psychologically helpful to the patient if they know their condition and learn to live with it.... They enjoy the time left to them sometimes make the most of it....

definitely i will tell the patient about her condition. it will not be fair to keep them on the dark. they have all the right to know.