RPSGT Professional Standards & Ethics 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A pediatric patient's parent refuses to allow the child to undergo a recommended sleep study. What should the technologist do?
- Proceed with the study because it is in the child's best interest
- Respect the parent's legal right to refuse and document accordingly (Correct answer)
- Contact child protective services immediately
- Sedate the child and proceed without parental consent
Correct answer: Respect the parent's legal right to refuse and document accordingly
Parents are the legal decision-makers for minor children; their refusal must be respected and documented, with the physician notified.
Question 2: An RPSGT who witnesses a patient in respiratory distress during a study should:
- Wait for the physician to return in the morning to assess the patient
- Initiate emergency response protocols immediately (Correct answer)
- Document the event and continue monitoring without intervention
- End the study and ask the patient to leave
Correct answer: Initiate emergency response protocols immediately
Life-threatening situations require immediate activation of emergency protocols; patient safety always supersedes study completion.
Question 3: What is the purpose of the RPSGT code of ethics regarding conflicts of interest?
- To prevent technologists from having any personal financial investments
- To ensure professional judgment is not compromised by personal or financial gain (Correct answer)
- To prohibit technologists from working at more than one facility
- To restrict participation in professional organization leadership roles
Correct answer: To ensure professional judgment is not compromised by personal or financial gain
Conflict of interest policies ensure that clinical decisions and professional judgments serve the patient rather than personal financial or other interests.
Question 4: Cultural competence in sleep medicine practice primarily involves:
- Requiring all patients to speak English during consultations
- Recognizing and respecting cultural differences that may influence patient care and communication (Correct answer)
- Applying the same communication style uniformly to all patients
- Limiting study protocols based on a patient's cultural background
Correct answer: Recognizing and respecting cultural differences that may influence patient care and communication
Cultural competence means understanding and respecting how cultural factors influence health beliefs and communication to provide equitable, effective care.
Question 5: If an RPSGT suspects a patient is suicidal based on statements made during the night study, the appropriate action is:
- Document the comment and review it at the next shift change
- Alert the supervising clinician immediately and follow facility crisis protocol (Correct answer)
- Reassure the patient and continue the study without escalation
- Contact the patient's family without notifying clinical staff
Correct answer: Alert the supervising clinician immediately and follow facility crisis protocol
Suicidal ideation is a psychiatric emergency that requires immediate escalation to clinical staff and activation of the facility's crisis protocol.
Question 6: The principle of 'non-maleficence' obligates an RPSGT to:
- Always recommend the most expensive treatment option
- Avoid causing harm to patients through actions or omissions (Correct answer)
- Maximize patient comfort at all times regardless of clinical needs
- Provide equal resources to all patients regardless of diagnosis
Correct answer: Avoid causing harm to patients through actions or omissions
Non-maleficence is the ethical duty to avoid inflicting harm on patients, whether through action, negligence, or error.
Question 7: An RPSGT is offered a job at a competing sleep lab and knows proprietary scoring protocols used at their current employer. They should:
- Share the protocols with the new employer since they memorized them
- Refrain from sharing confidential proprietary information that belongs to their current employer (Correct answer)
- Copy all protocol documents before resigning to have reference material
- Use the protocols freely since they are based on published AASM standards
Correct answer: Refrain from sharing confidential proprietary information that belongs to their current employer
Confidential proprietary information belongs to the employer; sharing or taking it constitutes a breach of professional ethics and may violate employment agreements.
RPSGT Professional Standards & Ethics 5
A pediatric patient's parent refuses to allow the child to undergo a recommended sleep study.
What should the technologist do?