Professionalism, Ethics & Patient Safety Flashcards
7 cards from real ABA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Professionalism, Ethics & Patient Safety flashcards as text
An anesthesiologist is approached by an attorney representing a patient who claims injury during anesthesia care. What is the most appropriate immediate response?
Answer: Notify the hospital risk management and personal malpractice insurer before making any statements
Upon contact from adverse-event legal counsel, the physician must immediately notify risk management and personal liability insurer before any statements or record modifications.
A CRNA performing a case under anesthesiologist supervision asks for your guidance on a rapidly deteriorating patient. You are simultaneously managing another critical case. What is the ethically and legally appropriate action?
Answer: Immediately go to the more critical patient, arranging coverage for your current patient
The supervising anesthesiologist has a duty to respond to the most critical situation while ensuring appropriate coverage for other patients.
Checklists in the operating room, such as the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist, primarily reduce harm by:
Answer: Standardizing critical communication steps to reduce reliance on individual memory
Surgical safety checklists reduce preventable harm by standardizing communication checkpoints that prevent omissions due to cognitive overload or distraction.
Which of the following scenarios represents a violation of the ethical principle of non-maleficence in anesthesia?
Answer: Administering a drug known to be harmful to a specific patient population without clinical justification
Non-maleficence obligates providers to avoid knowingly causing harm; administering a harmful drug without justification directly violates this principle.
A patient discloses a history of sexual abuse and expresses extreme anxiety about losing consciousness. What is the most patient-centered approach?
Answer: Explore the patient's specific fears and collaboratively develop an anesthetic plan that addresses them
Trauma-informed, patient-centered care requires exploring the patient's concerns and co-creating an acceptable plan that balances their psychological and surgical needs.
When an anesthesiologist identifies an unsafe practice pattern in a hospital department not their own (e.g., pharmacy dispensing errors), the most appropriate professional response is to:
Answer: Report the concern through the appropriate institutional patient safety channel
Physician professionalism includes a duty to report observed safety hazards through appropriate institutional channels regardless of specialty boundaries.
An anesthesiologist is asked to provide expert testimony in a malpractice case. Which obligation is paramount when serving as an expert witness?
Answer: Providing an honest, objective, evidence-based opinion regardless of who retained them
Expert witnesses have a professional and ethical duty to provide truthful, objective testimony based on evidence and standard of care, not to advocate for the retaining party.