Veracity in Nursing: Why It Matters
Nursing remains one of the most trusted professions because of nurses’ commitment to honesty and openness. This dedication to the truth is also known as veracity. But why is veracity important in nursing?
Being a veracious nurse means that you can have hard conversations with patients while preserving the nurse-patient relationship. Understanding veracity can help you go into tough conversations with more confidence, because you’ll understand that it’s part of the nursing process.
You might be surprised to learn that truth hasn’t always been valued in medicine. In the past, physicians made medical decisions for their patients without consulting or disclosing much information to them. It wasn’t until the 1980s that veracity was mentioned in medical ethics, and today it’s one of the seven essential principles in nursing, which include:
- Veracity
- Accountability
- Justice
- Nonmaleficence
- Autonomy
- Beneficence
- Fidelity
What you might notice about these principles is that there’s overlap between them, and none can exist without the others. For example, to foster patient autonomy, you’ll need to be truthful about a patient’s treatment options and potential outcomes. To practice justice as a nurse, you’ll need to use fidelity by keeping your promises to each patient.
What Is Veracity in Nursing?
Veracity is the ability to tell hard truths, and nursing is built upon a foundation of trust and communication. Nurses are entrusted with the well-being of their patients, and effective communication is essential in establishing and maintaining that trust and promoting autonomy.
Veracity With Patients
Veracity sounds relatively simple — we all know honesty is the best policy. Yet in practice, it can feel more complicated. Being truthful as a nurse can sometimes mean facing anger, frustration, or sadness from patients and family. It might mean admitting you don’t know something you think you should, or sharing a mistake you made. It’s when being honest feels hard that it’s most important.
Veracity Within the Healthcare Team
This principle isn’t reserved just for patient communication. Nurses collaborate with various professionals — other nursing staff, physicians, advanced practice providers, physical therapists, and more. Transparent and truthful communication with every person ensures a cohesive approach to patient care. When you share critical information, insights, and concerns with other team members, you’re being a patient advocate.
Veracity With Documentation
Veracity is also essential in nursing documentation. The fidelity of electronic medical records (EMRs) is dependent on honest reporting. You’ve heard it in nursing school — if you didn’t chart it, you didn’t do it. The inverse must also be true. Practicing veracity in your charting is essential to nursing practice and patient safety.
Example of Veracity in Nursing
Being an honest clinician is to practice with veracity. Meaning, in nursing, it’s better to help patients face the truth than keep them in the dark — even when the truth is unpleasant or sad. It also means being honest about your skills and the limits of your knowledge. Here are some examples of practicing veracity as a nursing professional:
- On a med-surg unit, you’re giving report when you realize you hung the wrong IV fluids for a patient. You’re embarrassed, but you admit the mistake to the oncoming nurse, replace the bag and tubing, and file a report on your mistake.
- You’re caring for a patient giving birth on an obstetrics unit, and the physician has just learned that the fetus has a birth abnormality. You sit with the patient as the physician informs them of the prognosis, and offer comfort and education when it’s needed.
- In a post-acute facility, you’ve been noticing that your patient’s memory is deteriorating. On their next family visit, you pull aside their daughter to discuss their care plan and how memory loss may change their health goals.
- You’re working on an oncology unit when you’re tasked with administering a chemotherapy drug you haven’t given before. To be sure you understand the process for administering, you ask a more experienced nurse to watch you give it.
Strategies to Promote Veracity in Nursing
Build open, nonpunitive communication channels with other nurses and members of the healthcare team. Encourage other clinicians to express concerns when they come up.
Ask for support when you need it. If you have news to share with a patient that feels uncomfortable, ask another staff member for guidance or to come into the room with you.
Chart as you go. It’s much easier to be veracious in your charting when you’re not having to think back several hours to document something. Documenting throughout your shift can help you be sure you’re being as truthful as possible and that the chart is accurate.
Follow seven decision-making principles:
- Identify the problem.
- Consult the code of ethics.
- Understand the nature of the dilemma.
- Think through potential courses of action.
- Think through the potential consequences of each decision.
- Choose and evaluate a course of action.
- Implement the plan.
Find Opportunities to Practice Veracity in Nursing
Having hard conversations is part of being a nurse, but being well-supported at work makes it easier to practice with integrity. If you’re looking for a new opportunity, sign up for nurse job notifications from IntelyCare.