Professional Standards & Ethics Flashcards
7 cards from real ABCS practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Professional Standards & Ethics flashcards as text
A patient with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) requests rhinoplasty. What is the most appropriate ethical and clinical response?
Answer: Defer surgery and refer for psychiatric evaluation and treatment
BDD is a contraindication for cosmetic surgery; performing procedures on patients with active BDD typically worsens outcomes and violates the standard of beneficence.
Under ABCS standards, what is the minimum requirement for a valid informed consent process?
Answer: Written documentation that includes risks, benefits, alternatives, and patient understanding
Valid informed consent requires documentation of a thorough discussion including risks, benefits, realistic outcomes, and alternatives that demonstrates patient comprehension.
Which scenario best represents an appropriate boundary in the patient-physician relationship within cosmetic surgery?
Answer: Accepting small gifts from grateful patients per office policy
Many professional codes permit accepting small, infrequent gifts that do not create undue obligation, while romantic involvement and review-for-treatment arrangements are clear violations.
A surgeon witnesses a colleague performing cosmetic procedures while visibly impaired. What is the ethical obligation?
Answer: Report the impairment through appropriate hospital or board channels to protect patient safety
Physicians have an ethical and in many states legal duty to report impaired colleagues to protect patient safety, even if it is professionally uncomfortable.
What does the principle of 'justice' require specifically in a cosmetic surgery practice?
Answer: Distributing the benefits and burdens of care fairly and without discrimination
Justice in medical ethics requires fair, equitable treatment of all patients without discrimination based on race, gender, socioeconomic status, or other protected characteristics.
A cosmetic surgeon in the US wants to advertise guaranteed results. Under ABCS and FTC guidelines, this is considered:
Answer: A violation of truth-in-advertising and professional ethics standards
Guaranteeing surgical outcomes is both ethically prohibited and violates FTC advertising regulations because individual results are inherently variable.
Which ethical principle is most directly invoked when a surgeon tailors the extent of a consultation to a patient's language and health literacy level?
Answer: Informed consent and respect for autonomy
Ensuring patients understand information in accessible language is fundamental to meaningful informed consent and respecting patient autonomy.