CALA Leadership & Ethics 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A staff member reports witnessing a colleague verbally demean a resident with dementia. As administrator, what is your FIRST action?
- Document the incident and begin a formal investigation (Correct answer)
- Immediately terminate the accused staff member
- Thank the reporter and take no further action until more witnesses come forward
- Increase resident supervision without addressing the staff member
Correct answer: Document the incident and begin a formal investigation
Documenting and investigating ensures due process while protecting the resident from further harm.
Question 2: Which leadership style is MOST effective when an assisted living facility is undergoing a major regulatory change requiring rapid staff adaptation?
- Laissez-faire
- Transformational (Correct answer)
- Transactional
- Autocratic
Correct answer: Transformational
Transformational leadership inspires staff to embrace change by communicating vision and building commitment.
Question 3: An administrator discovers that a department head has been falsifying care documentation to meet compliance metrics. The ethical obligation is to:
- Coach the department head privately and allow self-correction
- Report the falsification internally and to the appropriate regulatory body (Correct answer)
- Ignore it if resident outcomes appear unaffected
- Transfer the department head to a different role
Correct answer: Report the falsification internally and to the appropriate regulatory body
Falsifying care records is a serious ethical and legal violation requiring mandatory reporting regardless of apparent outcomes.
Question 4: Which principle best describes an administrator's duty to act in the best interest of residents even when it conflicts with family preferences?
- Autonomy
- Beneficence (Correct answer)
- Nonmaleficence
- Justice
Correct answer: Beneficence
Beneficence means actively promoting residents' well-being, which may sometimes override family wishes if those wishes harm the resident.
Question 5: A new administrator wants to build a culture of ethical decision-making. The MOST effective long-term strategy is:
- Posting the code of ethics in the breakroom
- Conducting annual ethics training only
- Integrating ethics into hiring, orientation, ongoing supervision, and performance reviews (Correct answer)
- Disciplining staff whenever an ethical breach occurs
Correct answer: Integrating ethics into hiring, orientation, ongoing supervision, and performance reviews
Embedding ethics across all employment touchpoints creates sustainable cultural norms rather than compliance-only behavior.
Question 6: When a resident's advance directive conflicts with the family's demands for aggressive treatment, the administrator should:
- Follow the family's wishes to avoid conflict
- Honor the resident's advance directive as the legal and ethical standard (Correct answer)
- Defer to the attending physician's preference
- Convene a meeting and let the majority decide
Correct answer: Honor the resident's advance directive as the legal and ethical standard
Advance directives represent the resident's autonomous healthcare decisions and are legally binding documents.
Question 7: Which of the following BEST characterizes servant leadership in an assisted living context?
- The leader makes all decisions to relieve staff of burden
- The leader prioritizes the growth and well-being of staff to ultimately serve residents better (Correct answer)
- The leader avoids conflict by accommodating all staff requests
- The leader delegates all responsibilities and remains uninvolved
Correct answer: The leader prioritizes the growth and well-being of staff to ultimately serve residents better
Servant leaders prioritize staff development because empowered, supported staff deliver higher quality resident care.
CALA Leadership & Ethics 2
A staff member reports witnessing a colleague verbally demean a resident with dementia.
As administrator, what is your FIRST action?