Professional Conduct, Ethics, and Disciplinary Grounds
What this domain tests
Questions here ask you to identify whether conduct is a disciplinary ground, which sanction the Board can impose, and how the disciplinary process actually runs.
Common grounds for discipline
- Obtaining or renewing a license by fraud or misrepresentation.
- Unprofessional conduct, incompetence, or gross negligence in patient care.
- Practicing beyond the scope of the license, or aiding unlicensed practice.
- Prescribing without an examination or outside legitimate practice.
- Substance misuse or practicing while impaired.
- Failing to maintain adequate records or adequate infection control.
- Abandoning a patient without reasonable notice or an opportunity to transfer.
- Boundary violations and sexual misconduct.
- Falsifying continuing education, billing for services not rendered, or splitting fees.
- Failing to cooperate with a Board investigation.
The disciplinary process
A complaint triggers investigation. The licensee receives notice and an opportunity for a hearing conducted under the Georgia Administrative Procedure Act, with evidence, witnesses, and a decision that includes findings of fact. Sanctions include reprimand, censure, fine, probation with monitoring, suspension, revocation, and accepted surrender. Judicial review of the Board's final decision goes to the appropriate Georgia court, and the reviewing court does not simply retry the case.
Ethical obligations worth memorizing
Veracity in billing and charting, patient autonomy expressed through consent, avoidance of conflicts of interest, and a duty to address impaired or incompetent colleagues rather than to cover for them.
Worked example
A dentist writes a prescription for a family member's dental pain without any examination or record entry. Analysis: prescribing is a dentist-only act, but it is tied to legitimate clinical practice. With no examination and no documentation, the conduct is prescribing outside the standard of care, and it is independently a record-keeping failure. Expect Board discipline, and note that criminal exposure can exist separately.
Traps
- Assuming a simple charting error is automatically gross negligence; the standard looks at the pattern and the harm.
- Believing the Board must choose between revoking and doing nothing; graduated sanctions and probation are available.
- Thinking an employer's internal discipline settles the Board complaint.