Advice for nursing students from our panel of nurses, lecturers and fellow students. Nurses must ‘act with honesty and integrity at all times’, according to the Nursing and Midwifery Council code – but are there occasions when it is acceptable to be less than honest with patients? Nursing students learn about the importance of being open and transparent in patient communication, and how to have difficult conversations, for example in relation to a diagnosis or end of life care. But what if your patient is a child, is unable to process information due to a condition, or the information may cause them distress?