Ethics and Communication – Set 2

What this deck covers

Ethics and Communication – Set 2 in 50 board-style clinical cases with worked explanations. Each case gives you a clinical vignette, four options, the correct answer, and an explanation of why each of the other three is wrong, with the guideline or textbook it follows named on the answer.

Board-style teaching questions for paediatricians and trainees preparing for paediatric board, MRCPCH and licensing examinations. Written from published guidelines and standard paediatric textbooks, with the source named on every answer.

The 50 cases, in order

1. Needle feared to paralyse
2. Teenager says no to theatre
3. Sign today or lose the theatre slot
4. Family fears the machine
5. Who cannot consent for themselves
6. Bleeding never mentioned beforehand
7. Planned repair declined today
8. Healthy son of an affected father
9. Forehead wound, no family reachable
10. Explaining the dangers honestly
11. Who signs at thirteen
12. Father who reads little
13. Abandoned newborn, planned surgery
14. Parents request a hysterectomy
15. What makes a signature count
16. Safety-net advice before going home
17. Principle behind the clinic’s stance
18. Orphaned girl with a scalp cut
19. Refusal stands, plan for tonight
20. Why his no is not final
21. What informed consent means
22. Harmful refusal outside an emergency
23. Who authorises sterilisation
24. Mole removed without being asked
25. Worry about a toddler’s brain
26. Upset father presses for testing
27. Drowsy after a fall, nobody to ask
28. Why this refusal can stand
29. Assent still withheld after two talks
30. Girl asks whether it will hurt
31. Airway failing, mother says no
32. Guiding test for surrogate choices
33. When surgery may go ahead unconsented
34. Stuck groin lump, mother says no
35. If symptoms appear later
36. Who certifies the urgency
37. Chart entry after a declined scan
38. Father asks about the age limit
39. How agreement to surgery is recorded
40. Angry family after the emergency
41. Least restrictive period care
42. Order of steps ahead of theatre
43. Distressed parent threatening to leave
44. Recessive gene in the family
45. One parent away on Umrah
46. Parents ask to stop life support
47. Unexpected finding under anaesthesia
48. Elective surgery, guardian untraceable
49. One mother, two different outcomes
50. Parents’ safety worry about her

Diagnoses and management options tested

Across the fifty cases you are asked to choose between options such as: Ask what they have heard and what worries them most, Wait for a court order before starting, Discharge him with no plan for follow-up, The procedure carries no risk of any kind, The senior nurse of the ward where he is cared for, Stop him crying, To the treating consultant alone, Tell her the anaesthetic carries no risk of any kind, Diagnostic tests never need parental consent, Wait for her father to arrive and decide, Rebook him for a planned repair next week, Only that the parents are uncooperative, Avoid them until they have calmed down, Security staff, to remove her from the ward.

Clinical pearls from this deck

• Ask why before you explain.
• The guardian’s consent makes surgery lawful; the child’s assent is still sought.
• Consent must be free: no pressure, no threats.
• Life-saving care refused by the guardian: his consent is not required.
• Cannot consent for themselves: under 18, mentally incapacitated, unconscious.
• No full disclosure, no informed consent.

Work through the deck once for recognition, then again a week later to test yourself — each question gives the answer and explains why every other option fails.

More from this system: all ethics and communication case decks · pediatric reference values.