Professionalism and Ethics in Nuclear Medical Physics
Core concepts to master
Professionalism questions test judgment, not memorized trivia. Know the ABR Code of Ethics themes: competence, honesty, patient welfare first, confidentiality, scope-of-practice limits, and avoidance of conflicts of interest. Understand informed consent and the ALARA principle as ethical obligations, not just regulatory ones. Be ready to distinguish negligence from malpractice (malpractice requires a duty, breach, causation, and damages). Recognize research ethics: IRB approval, human-subjects protections, authorship integrity, data fabrication, and plagiarism. Understand conflict-of-interest disclosure, gift/industry-relationship rules, and whistleblower obligations when patient safety is at risk. Know the boundaries of supervision (who may administer radiopharmaceuticals, who signs off on written directives) and the duty to report impaired or incompetent colleagues through proper channels.
Traps that appear in questions
- Choosing the "technically correct but ethically wrong" option - e.g., quietly fixing a colleague's error without documentation.
- Confusing confidentiality with secrecy: patient safety overrides silence; report through proper channels.
- Assuming a physicist may practice outside scope (e.g., making clinical diagnoses) - defer to the authorized user/physician.
- Forgetting that informed consent requires capacity, voluntariness, and disclosure of risks/benefits/alternatives.
- Misidentifying plagiarism as only copying text - self-plagiarism and unattributed figures count.
- Overlooking that financial conflicts must be disclosed even if they don't change the decision.
Worked example / rule of thumb
A technologist reports a recurring calibration drift that a supervisor dismisses. The ethical sequence: (1) document the finding objectively, (2) escalate through the chain of command, (3) if patient safety is imminent, report to the radiation safety officer or appropriate authority. Rule of thumb: when patient safety and institutional loyalty conflict, patient safety wins - and document every step.
Exam strategy
Ask: Who is harmed? What does the code require? What is the least-self-serving action? The best answer usually protects the patient, stays in scope, and documents transparently.