Should doctors keep their illness a secret?

Undeniably, doctors hide their illness from patients, often out of fear that patients can't bear the truth. This practice is also a direct embodiment of noble medical ethics to a certain extent. However, China's medical laws and regulations clearly stipulate that in medical activities, medical machinery and its medical staff should truthfully inform patients of their illness, medical measures and medical risks, and answer their consultations in time. Therefore, doctors' practice of concealing patients' illness cannot be generalized, but should be analyzed in detail.

First of all, doctors should consciously abide by the law, respect patients' right to know, and truthfully inform patients of their illness. Moreover, after learning about the illness, such patients will also mobilize all their positive factors to fight the disease and actively cooperate with the doctor's treatment, which is conducive to the recovery of the illness.

Secondly, for those patients who are seriously ill or pessimistic, we should also respect their right to know, but we should pay more attention to "skills" when telling patients about their illness. On the one hand, the patient's psychological endurance should be thoroughly and comprehensively understood before informing, and the informing scheme should be made according to the patient's actual psychological endurance; On the other hand, we should choose the right time to inform, adopt a euphemistic way (first inform the patient's family, and then convey it by the patient's family), do a good job of comfort and persuasion in the later treatment, and encourage patients to bravely overcome the disease.

In short, generally speaking, doctors should respect patients' right to know. However, considering the different situations of patients, we should adopt different ways to inform them according to their age, occupation, personality, educational level and psychological endurance.