Prognosis Essay. Health, Medicine, Nursing Assignment.

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Introduction
While honesty is a significant virtue in Western medicine, its concealment is a common practice in Asian culture. The concealment of grave prognosis is both culturally meditated and family-centered because an illness is a shared community affair. In the majority of the cases, honesty is discouraged because it will extinguish any hope that the patient has left. However, the lack to inform the patient about his/her true state of health is linked to the futile expectation of a treatment plan. This paper examines whether health workers in Asia should respect the culture and avoid truth-telling and whether dishonesty in such environment constitutes an ethical breach.
Respect cultural practices or tell the truth?
Under normal circumstances, each health worker should strive to inform and avail patients with the correct information at all times. However, in circumstances such as those available in Asia, health workers must be guided by principles of cultural relativism. Cultural relativism fosters tolerance of diverse beliefs but it does not require health workers to sacrifice truth-telling out of cultural respect. Importantly, cultural relativism recognizes that individuals within a single cultural community can have different values. To this effect, contemporary studies indicate that 88% of Pakistanis patients are against being told about diagnosis related to cancer and other terminal diseases (Ishaque et al, 2017). Therefore, would I respect the culture and not disclose grave diagnosis to a Pakistanis patient? Yes, I would not disclose such information. Other than cultural respect, such dishonesty from health workers is crucial in situations where the patient is likely to experience somatic and physiological damage due to his/her inability to tolerate the truth.
How healthcare providers can balance the patie...