Professional Conduct, Ethics, and Advertising
Core concepts
Know the standards of professional conduct: honesty, competence, patient welfare, avoiding conflicts of interest, and maintaining appropriate boundaries. Understand unprofessional conduct as defined by statute and regulation, including false or deceptive advertising, guaranteeing cures, misleading claims, improper fee-splitting, and practicing beyond competence.
Advertising rules
Advertising must be truthful, not misleading, and must not create unjustified expectations of results. Know restrictions on testimonials, claims of superiority, and use of titles. Questions often test whether a specific advertisement is deceptive rather than whether it is merely in poor taste.
Traps in questions
- Confusing unethical but legal conduct with disciplinable unprofessional conduct.
- Assuming puffery is always permitted; claims that mislead patients can violate the Act.
- Overlooking the duty to avoid abandoning patients or to ensure continuity of care.
- Missing boundary issues, such as improper dual relationships.
- Forgetting that fee arrangements must be disclosed and not improperly split.
Rule of thumb
Apply the "reasonable patient" test: would a reasonable patient be misled or harmed by this conduct or advertisement? If yes, it likely constitutes unprofessional conduct.
Worked example
An ad states "Guaranteed cure for sciatica in one visit." This is deceptive and guarantees results, violating advertising standards, regardless of whether some patients improve. The correct answer identifies the guarantee and misleading nature as the violation.