Is it ever okay to be dishonest with a patient?

Remember that PA schools use the multiple mini interview process to evaluate the skills, abilities, and personality traits that will make you a great student and future Physician Assistant. In your research, you may come across scenarios in which a physician's honesty with a patient is not best for the patient. The key to your answer is stressing that you are still doing good for the patient.

First, make it abundantly clear that being honest and forthright with patients is the best thing to do in most situations, and reiterate that you are an honest and forthright person. Then go on to explain that there are a small number of scenarios where withholding some truth can benefit the patient, such as when a patient's psychological state can be helped, cultural barriers in care, and when near misses happen with patients.

"Yes, I feel strongly that there are a limited number of situations where withholding information from a patient is the right thing to do. I was reading about this topic a few months ago and learned a lot that I can bring to PA school. For example, if a patient suffers from poor mental health, the whole truth about their condition or treatment may be more than they can handle. The condition and treatment should still be thoroughly documented, and the patient's caregivers would need to be informed, but in those cases, dishonesty may be best. I would also likely withhold information if a near miss occurred during a patient's procedure. As long as it was truly an error and no harm was done to the patient, there is no benefit in the patient knowing that something damaging or fatal almost happened. Of course, I would follow any internal reporting procedures in this situation."