Lying to patients with dementia: Attitudes versus behaviours in nurses.
BACKGROUND
Using lies, in dementia care, reveals a common practice far beyond the diagnosis and prognosis, extending to the entire care process.


OBJECTIVES
In this article, we report results about the attitude and the behaviour of nurses towards the use of lies to patients with dementia.


RESEARCH DESIGN
An epidemiological cross-sectional study was conducted between September 2016 and February 2017 in 12 elderly residential facilities and in the geriatric, psychiatric and neurological wards of six specialised hospitals of Italy's Campania Region.


PARTICIPANTS
In all, 106 nurses compiled an attitude questionnaire (A) where the main question was 'Do you think it is ethically acceptable to use lies to patients with dementia?', instead 106 nurses compiled a behaviour questionnaire (B), where the main question was 'Have you ever used lies to patients with dementia?'


ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Using lies in dementia care, although topic ethically still controversial, reveals a common practice far beyond the diagnosis and prognosis, extending to the entire care process.


FINDINGS
Only a small percentage of the interviewed nurses stated that they never used lies/that it is never acceptable to use lies (behaviour 10.4% and attitude 12.3%; p = 0.66). The situation in which nurses were more oriented to use lies was 'to prevent or reduce aggressive behaviors'. Indeed, only the 6.7% in the attitude group and 3.8% in the behaviour group were against using lies. On the contrary, the case in which the nurses were less oriented to use lies was 'to avoid wasting time giving explanations', in this situation were against using lies the 51.0% of the behaviour group and the 44.6% of the attitude group.


CONCLUSION
Our results, according to other studies, support the hypothesis of a low propensity of nurses to ethical reflection about use of lies. In our country, the implementation of guidelines about a correct use of lie in the relationship between health operators and patients would be desirable.
['Cantone|Daniela|D|', 'Attena|Francesco|F|', 'Cerrone|Sabrina|S|', 'Fabozzi|Antonio|A|', 'Rossiello|Riccardo|R|', 'Spagnoli|Laura|L|', 'Pelullo|Concetta Paola|CP|']
D000368:Aged D000369:Aged, 80 and over D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D008192:Deception D003704:Dementia D004993:Ethics, Nursing D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007558:Italy D008297:Male D009726:Nurses D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
lie dementia Attitude behaviour ethics