People lie for many reasons. As professionals who interact with hundreds of patients on a daily basis, nurses will also confront their fair share of liars, especially with those who get sent to the hospital due to carelessness or something that could’ve been easily avoided. Personal pride aside, it’s important to always find out the truth behind a patient’s condition in order to administer the appropriate treatment.

In a hospital setting, people lie for a variety of reasons. Some people are ashamed to admit that their condition worsened after forgetting to take their treatment. Other patients get into trouble by doing something that they shouldn’t have done, which could have resulted in an injury or an illness. Meanwhile, some patients might be born with a condition that requires constant treatment, and are too embarrassed about it. Whatever the reason may be, the truth is always instrumental in administering proper treatment.

While it’s difficult to change a patient’s behavior in such a short amount of time, it’s possible to learn how to tell if a patient is lying.

Learning to discern the truth from a patient’s story is a pivotal skill that will be of great importance throughout your career. It relies heavily on your intuitions, but also on several techniques that can be used to subtly coerce the truth from the patient.

Read on to learn the best ways to tell if a patient is lying.

Ask Away!

The very first thing you need to assess when determining if a patient is lying is their verbal response. The best way to go about this is by asking questions.

After asking a question, you can evaluate their responses in several ways:

• Response time: Patients who are lying tend to take longer than usual to respond than those who are recalling details from memory. So, if a patient always takes too long to answer a question (and if this is unrelated to his current medication), then odds are that he is not being completely honest.

• Too many details: If a patient always goes into excessive details when answering simple questions, it’s likely that he is responding untruthfully from a rehearsed lie. In order to give credibility to a lie, some people actually rehearse their answers, going into great detail on each occasion. However, keep in mind that people who like to elaborate excessively are not necessarily lying. The key is to gauge the response in relation to the question and determine if some things don’t add up.
• The answer itself: It’s easy to fall into prejudice with certain patients, especially with those that are known to lie frequently about their treatments. It’s always important to listen to what a patient has to say. There is a good chance that, if they’re lying, they get caught up in their own web as you continue interviewing and asking questions. Detecting when they’re lying is more about simply talking, rather than trying to willfully act as a human polygraph machine.

The Lies Are in the Details

Most of our communication is non-verbal. Usually while you are talking, your body is also doing all sorts of subtle movements that can be picked up by skilled interviewers. However, when someone is lying, their body movements don’t match up with what they’re saying.

For example, a patient who is lying will usually avoid making eye contact at all costs, or will usually look down at their feet as they’re talking. On the other hand, others don’t break eye contact at all costs and tend to only look to the left when speaking. Looking to the left means that the person is trying to construct phrases verbally on-the-go, rather than recalling stuff memory.

Just like with eye contact, those that lie or are uneasy when speaking usually don’t know what to do with their hands. Most individuals that respond untruthfully keep their fists clenched or their hands in their pockets, while those that are responding honestly will have no problems showing the palms of their hands while gesturing. Furthermore, while some patients clench their fists, others might purse or tense their lips when listening or thinking about how to answer a question.

Lastly, the tone and pace of a patient’s voice may betray their intentions as those who are lying typically speak in a higher pitch than usual. Furthermore, people who lie tend to embellish their stories in an effort to give more credibility to their claims. Lastly, if a person stutters, stammers, or are speaking at an accelerated pace, there is a good chance that they’re lying.