NBME 23 Answers : Block 3 : #13 = A 65-year-old man with a history of gout comes to ...

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submitted by aladar50(17),

The important thing for most of the ethics questions are to look for the answer where you are being the nicest/most professional while respecting the patient’s autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, etc. Most of the choices here were either accusatory or basically being mean to the patient. The correct choice is to help the patient but also motivate them to continue physical therapy and to only use the permit as little as necessary. A similar question (which I think was on NBME 23 -- they are kind of blending together) was the one where the patient had test results that indicated he had cancer but the resident said not to (voluntarily) tell him until the oncologist came in later that day, and the patient asked you about the results. You don’t want to the lie to the patient and say you don’t know or that he doesn’t have cancer, but you also don’t want to be insubordinate to the resident’s (reasonable) request.

drdoom @aladar Your response is good but it’s actually mistaken: You *never* lie to patients. Period. In medicine, it’s our inclination not to be insubordinate to a “superior” (even if the request sounds reasonable -- “let’s not inform the patient until the oncologist comes”) but *your* relationship with *your* patient takes precedence over your relationship with a colleague or a supervisor. So, when a patient asks you a question directly, (1) you must not lie and (2) for the purposes of Step 1, you mustn’t avoid providing an answer to the question (either by deferring to someone else or by “pulling a politician” [providing a response which does not address the original question]). +1

drdoom As an addendum, legally speaking, you have a contractual relationship with your patient, *not with another employee of the hospital* or even another “well-respected” colleague. This is why, from a legal as well as moral standpoint, your relationship with someone for whom you provide medical care takes precedence over “collegial relationships” (i.e., relationships with colleagues, other providers, or employers). +

imnotarobotbut @drdoom, it's not about lying to the patient but it would be wrong for an inexperienced medical student to give the patient their cancer diagnosis, or for a doctor to give a cancer diagnosis if they feel that the patient should be seen by oncology. In fact, the correct answer that the question that was referred to by aladar50 says that you do NOT give the patient their cancer diagnosis even if they asked you directly about it. +

charcot_bouchard Dont give it to him. DOnt lie to him that yyou dont know. Tell him let me get the resident rn so we can discuss together Best of both world +