Professionalism, Ethics, and Legal Responsibilities
Core duties
Expect questions on truthfulness, confidentiality, scope of competence, boundary-setting, and managing conflicts of interest. Confidentiality is not absolute: disclosure may be justified with consent, when required by law, or in the public interest to prevent serious harm - and then only the minimum necessary information to the fewest people. Recognise when a personal or financial interest could distort a recommendation and disclose or avoid it.
Competence and referral
Working within competence means recognising the limits of your training and referring appropriately rather than experimenting. Delegation carries responsibility for ensuring the delegate is competent and supervised. Record-keeping is a professional obligation: contemporaneous, legible, attributable, and unaltered - never backdate or amend retrospectively without clearly marking the amendment.
Common traps
Items often test the difference between an ethical duty and a legal one, whether a minor can consent (assess capacity, not just age), and what to do when a patient refuses a recommended referral. Refusal is generally respected if the patient has capacity, after documenting the discussion and the risks declined. Another trap is responding to an error with concealment; the expected answer is honest disclosure, apology, and remediation.
Rule of thumb
Use the "front page" test: would you be comfortable if your management of this case, including the record, were published? If not, change the plan or the documentation.
Worked example: You notice a colleague appears impaired at work. The professional response is to prevent immediate harm, report through the appropriate channel, and support the colleague - not to investigate privately or stay silent.