Medical ethics, informed consent, and patient communication scenarios as tested on USMLE Step 3.
34 cards · basic cards · AI-written, checked twice. Edit anything.
- What are the four core principles of medical ethics?
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Autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice.- What ethical principle refers to a patient's right to make decisions about their own care?
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Autonomy.- What ethical principle obligates a physician to act in the patient's best interest?
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Beneficence.- What ethical principle means "do no harm"?
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Nonmaleficence.- What ethical principle concerns the fair distribution of health care resources?
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Justice.- What three elements must be present for informed consent to be valid?
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Disclosure of information, patient capacity, and voluntariness.- When can a physician treat a patient without obtaining informed consent?
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In a life-threatening emergency when the patient cannot consent and no surrogate is immediately available.- Who determines whether a patient has decision-making capacity?
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The treating physician.- Who determines whether a patient is legally competent?
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A judge or court.- To have decision-making capacity, a patient must understand the relevant information, appreciate the situation and its consequences, reason about treatment options, and ____.
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communicate a clear choice- If an adult patient has no advance directive and becomes incapacitated, who is typically the first-priority default surrogate decision-maker?
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The spouse.- What is an advance directive?
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A legal document stating a person's wishes for future medical care if they lose decision-making capacity.- What is a durable power of attorney for health care?
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A legal document naming a specific person to make medical decisions if the patient loses capacity.- What is a living will?
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A written document specifying which treatments a patient wants or does not want in specific future medical situations.- What should a physician do if a patient with full decision-making capacity refuses a life-saving treatment?
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Respect the refusal, after ensuring the patient understands the risks.
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