Truth Telling Across Cultures: Is Veracity always a Best Practice

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CCLS are often faced with ethical dilemmas in their daily practice. These dilemmas may arise from many different layers including the patients, families, health care team, and/or culture and society. Most who serve in health care subscribe to the Best Interest Standard, which is the "ethical requirement that people who care for others will do so in good faith, placing their assessment of that person's best interests above their own". As CCLS, navigation of Parental Authority, Pediatric Assent, Justice, and Respect for Person are common ethical principles that often arise with each intervention. However, veracity, or the obligation to be truthful may vary depending on culture. Often Eastern and Western Medicine and Culture have differing views on including children and adolescents in their health care decisions. As CCLS, who are often trained in Western Medicine, we must balance obligations to respect individual patient autonomy, professional truth telling, and tolerances of multicultural beliefs and values. This presentation will review ethical principles such as Beneficence, Nonmaleficence, Fidelity, and Cultural Relativism and how they relate to navigating ethical dilemmas, in particular with different cultural views or beliefs. For example, a CCLS may feel obligated to be honest if a patient asks, "What is happening to them?" or a CCLS may feel an obligation in Respect for a patient's autonomy to be included in decision making, memory making, or legacy building activities related to their medical diagnosis or prognosis. This presentation will provide participants an opportunity to utilize an Ethical Framework to navigate these ethical dilemmas and explore is Veracity, Always Best when working with different cultures.

Suggested Domain: Ethics

1.0 PDU

Learning Objectives:

1. Utilize ethical tenets to assess and implement patient interventions

2. Review application of child life code of ethics, with emphasis on cultural implications

Thank you to the generous sponsor of today's webinar, Mighty Millie.

Leslie Daniels

BA, CCLS

Leslie Daniels, CCLS, is a Child Life Manager at Children’s Mercy Hospital (CMH) in Kansas City, Missouri. Leslie received her Bachelor of Science degree in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia. For over twenty years, Leslie has worked in direct patient care, primarily serving in critical care areas and the emergency department, and she served as child life internship coordinator. Leslie has played an active role on the CMH Aftercare Committee, providing support to children and adolescents who have experienced the death of a sibling. Leslie holds a certificate in Pediatric Bioethics. Leslie has been active with ACLP, specifically the CLCC, most recently serving as Chair of the Certification Commission. Away from the hospital, Leslie enjoys spending time with her husband, Billy, and her children, Alex, Cheyanne, and John. She also enjoys visiting with family and friends and traveling.

Lucy Raab

MA, CCLS, Certificate in Pediatric Bioethics

Lucy is the Assistant Director of the Child Life Department at Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas City. Lucy has served on the ACLP Board of Directors as the Child Life Certifying Commission Chair and has been chair of the Ethics Committee for ACLP. Lucy has been a certified child life specialist at CM for 25 years, working clinically with a variety of patient populations and diagnoses. She is focused on facilitating psychosocial interventions that build and fortify resilience in patients and families facing healthcare challenges. Lucy is committed to prioritizing the coping, developmental, and emotional safety needs of patients and their families.