Honesty: the best policy in nursing practice

Abstract

1. In the process of delivering patient care, nurses are constantly faced with choices of actions that can be either honest or dishonest. Dishonesty may be selected out of a desire to protect oneself, the patient, or even the doctor. 2. Although nurses must often choose between being honest and dishonest, being dishonest violates the trust placed in the nurse and undermines the nursing profession; dishonesty is never justified. 3. To err and to not set the record straight is dishonest and leads to lack of self-respect, lack of respect from others, lack of trust from patients and coworkers, lack of credibility, patient harm, and occasionally to lawsuits.