OSCE Professional Ethics and Standards 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A patient refuses a blood transfusion on religious grounds despite a life-threatening hemorrhage. Which ethical principle is the clinician most obligated to respect?
- Beneficence
- Non-maleficence
- Autonomy (Correct answer)
- Justice
Correct answer: Autonomy
Competent adult patients have the right to refuse treatment, and respecting that decision upholds the principle of autonomy even when clinicians disagree.
Question 2: During an OSCE station, a student observes a peer copying notes from a hidden cheat sheet. What is the most appropriate immediate action?
- Ignore it to avoid conflict
- Report it to the examiner or institution (Correct answer)
- Confront the peer aggressively during the exam
- Copy the peer's notes as well
Correct answer: Report it to the examiner or institution
Academic integrity policies require students to report observed misconduct to the appropriate authority rather than ignoring it.
Question 3: A clinician learns that a colleague is practicing while impaired by alcohol. What is the most ethically appropriate response?
- Advise patients to avoid that colleague
- Report the colleague to the appropriate licensing board or supervisor (Correct answer)
- Cover for the colleague and manage their patients
- Wait to see if the behavior improves on its own
Correct answer: Report the colleague to the appropriate licensing board or supervisor
Clinicians have a professional and ethical duty to report impaired colleagues to protect patient safety.
Question 4: Which document should a clinician consult first when a patient cannot make decisions and no advance directive exists?
- The hospital billing department
- The patient's closest next of kin as surrogate decision-maker (Correct answer)
- The institution's financial officer
- The media
Correct answer: The patient's closest next of kin as surrogate decision-maker
When a patient lacks decision-making capacity and has no advance directive, a surrogate decision-maker—typically the next of kin—is identified according to state law.
Question 5: A pediatric patient's parents demand a treatment that the clinical team believes is futile. The most ethical course of action is to:
- Immediately comply without discussion
- Engage the family in a goals-of-care conversation and involve the ethics committee if needed (Correct answer)
- Discharge the patient without discussion
- Proceed with the most aggressive treatment available
Correct answer: Engage the family in a goals-of-care conversation and involve the ethics committee if needed
When clinicians and families disagree about futility, structured communication and ethics consultation are the recommended steps.
Question 6: Veracity in clinical practice refers to:
- Keeping patient information private
- Telling patients the truth about their diagnosis and prognosis (Correct answer)
- Distributing healthcare resources fairly
- Preventing harm to patients
Correct answer: Telling patients the truth about their diagnosis and prognosis
Veracity is the ethical duty to be truthful with patients, including about diagnoses, prognoses, and treatment limitations.
Question 7: A medical student is asked by an attending physician to sign off on a procedure the student did not perform. The student should:
- Sign as requested to please the attending
- Refuse and report the request if the attending insists (Correct answer)
- Ask a nurse to sign instead
- Document a different procedure that was performed
Correct answer: Refuse and report the request if the attending insists
Falsifying medical records is fraud; the student must refuse and escalate the request to the appropriate authority.
OSCE Professional Ethics and Standards 2
A patient refuses a blood transfusion on religious grounds despite a life-threatening hemorrhage.
Which ethical principle is the clinician most obligated to respect?