PBC Ethical Standards & Professional Boundaries 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A bereaved parent asks their perinatal bereavement counselor to attend the baby's memorial service as a personal guest and sit with the family. What is the most ethically appropriate response?
- Decline entirely to avoid any boundary crossing
- Attend briefly in a professional capacity if appropriate, maintaining the therapeutic role (Correct answer)
- Accept as a gesture of compassionate care without restriction
- Consult the parent's partner before deciding
Correct answer: Attend briefly in a professional capacity if appropriate, maintaining the therapeutic role
Attending a memorial in a professional capacity may be appropriate in bereavement care, but the clinician must maintain their professional role rather than acting as a personal guest.
Question 2: Which ethical principle is MOST directly violated when a perinatal bereavement specialist shares a client's story publicly without consent, even when all identifying details are changed?
- Justice
- Beneficence
- Confidentiality (Correct answer)
- Autonomy
Correct answer: Confidentiality
Confidentiality extends beyond identifying details; sharing client narratives without explicit consent violates this core ethical obligation.
Question 3: A hospital-based perinatal bereavement nurse realizes she is personally grieving a recent pregnancy loss while providing care to a newly bereaved family. The FIRST priority should be to:
- Continue care while being transparent with the family about her own loss
- Immediately transfer the case to a colleague and seek personal support (Correct answer)
- Use her experience as a therapeutic tool to build rapport
- Request extended bereavement leave before addressing the situation
Correct answer: Immediately transfer the case to a colleague and seek personal support
When a clinician's personal grief may impair their ability to provide competent care, transferring the case and seeking support is the appropriate first step.
Question 4: Which of the following best describes 'role blurring' in perinatal bereavement care?
- Using multiple therapeutic modalities with a single client
- When the professional's role shifts into friendship, advocacy, or personal relationship (Correct answer)
- Adapting communication style to different cultural backgrounds
- Providing care across hospital departments
Correct answer: When the professional's role shifts into friendship, advocacy, or personal relationship
Role blurring occurs when the clearly defined professional role begins to overlap with personal relationships or other inappropriate roles.
Question 5: A perinatal bereavement specialist receives a friend request on social media from a bereaved parent they currently support. What is the ethically correct action?
- Accept to maintain connection and ongoing support
- Ignore the request without explanation
- Decline and address the request in the next clinical session (Correct answer)
- Accept only on personal accounts, not professional ones
Correct answer: Decline and address the request in the next clinical session
Declining and then addressing the request therapeutically preserves professional boundaries while using the interaction as a clinical opportunity.
Question 6: In perinatal bereavement ethics, the concept of 'dual relationships' refers to:
- Providing care to both parents in a couple simultaneously
- Having both a professional and a personal relationship with a client (Correct answer)
- Using two different therapeutic frameworks concurrently
- Collaborating with two healthcare teams for the same client
Correct answer: Having both a professional and a personal relationship with a client
Dual relationships arise when a clinician holds both a professional role and another type of relationship (e.g., friend, neighbor) with the same person.
Question 7: A perinatal bereavement counselor's client discloses that she is planning to harm herself. Under which ethical principle does the counselor's duty to warn override confidentiality?
- Principle of veracity
- Duty to protect from imminent harm (Correct answer)
- Right to informed consent
- Principle of fidelity
Correct answer: Duty to protect from imminent harm
When a client presents imminent risk of harm to self, the duty to protect overrides confidentiality obligations.
PBC Ethical Standards & Professional Boundaries 2
A bereaved parent asks their perinatal bereavement counselor to attend the baby's memorial service as a personal guest and sit with the family.
What is the most ethically appropriate response?