CST Ethics & Professionalism 5

Question 1

A patient refuses a blood transfusion for religious reasons, but the surgical team believes it is medically necessary. The team should:

Accepted Answer

Respect the patient's decision and document their refusal

Answer

Respecting a competent patient's informed refusal of treatment honors the ethical principle of autonomy.

Question 2

Which of the following is an example of nonmaleficence in surgical practice?

Accepted Answer

Using proper aseptic technique to prevent surgical site infections

Answer

Nonmaleficence means 'do no harm'; using proper aseptic technique directly prevents harm to the patient.

Question 3

A CST realizes they made an error during a procedure that was not caught at the time. The ethical obligation is to:

Accepted Answer

Disclose the error to the surgical team and document it in an incident report

Answer

Ethical practice requires prompt disclosure of errors to the team and proper incident reporting to support patient safety.

Question 4

Social media posts by a CST that include identifiable details about a patient case, even without a name, may violate:

Accepted Answer

HIPAA if the patient could be identified from context

Answer

HIPAA protects any information that could identify a patient, including contextual details even without the patient's name.

Question 5

A CST who is asked to sign as a witness on an informed consent form they did not witness should:

Accepted Answer

Refuse to sign since they did not witness the consent process

Answer

Signing as a witness to a consent process you did not observe constitutes falsification of a legal document.

(CST) Certified Surgery Technician Practice Test