Moral dilemma/ethics/etc interview question

[Danny L]

I've seen this question on a bunch of interview reviews, but I don't really have a good example for this.

Anyone have common examples/situations? Maybe I have something and am just unaware of it

FWIW I'm not politically active or openly religious. No major encounters with anything academic off the top of my head

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[863168]

@Danny L Have you not taken a bioethics course?

 

[Danny L]

@Danny L Have you not taken a bioethics course?

No I'm not even sure if that's even offered at my school. Although even if it is I'm not sure if that would give me a great example because I wouldn't be in a situation where I have to make a (difficult) moral/ethical decision

 

[CloverBale]

9 Moral Dilemmas That Will Break Your Brain

maybe ?

 

[Planes2Doc]

Remember, you would throw your grandmother under the bus for cheating on an exam if you had to.

 

[E.Hemingway]

Ethics Cases Index - American Medical Association Journal of Ethics (formerly Virtual Mentor)

 

[Planes2Doc]

In all seriousness though, here's one that might reasonably come up given all the hurricane stuff going on:

You are practicing as a physician, and you are going to Puerto Rico or whatever place in the Caribbean that has just been destroyed by a hurricane. You ask your colleague if they will come with you to help. Your colleague says: "**** Puerto Rico!" What would you do in this situation?

 

[LizzyM]

If the question is whether you have ever faced a moral dilemma, think back to a time when a friend (or sibling) made you promise to keep a secret then you realize that this is going to be hazardous to their well being and that you might need to tell someone who can help the person get the help they need. It could be substance abuse, suicidal ideation, or disordered eating behavior. It might be sexual assault, domestic violence, or being involved in petty theft. Telling someone in authority would break your promise but but make it more likely that the person will get help that could save their life or prevent serious downstream effects.

Did you tell, or not? Why did you do what you did?

 

[calivianya]

I didn't run into serious ethical dilemmas until I started working in critical care and watched families rescind DNRs, sign consents for trachs on people who made it clear they didn't want trachs, have us do extremely painful dressing changes on vented, restrained, stage 4 cancer patients that wouldn't change any outcome... with no pain medicine because the family wanted the patient awake, etc.

How about which family member gets to stay when two of them get into a knock down, drag out altercation in the waiting room? Usually the formal POA with paperwork gets to stay no matter what, but what if neither has actual paperwork and they're the same degree of relation, i.e. both children of the patient? How about if the one who's stirring up trouble is the actual POA, and that person is being violent towards the healthcare staff?

Does the family member who actually lives with the patient have any rights, if the formal POA lives multiple states away and only sees the patient a couple times a year? How about if the patient has a life partner he/she has lived with for 20+ years, but these two are not married and there is no formal POA paperwork, and the child who is estranged and hasn't seen the patient in decades, but is the closest biological relative, wants to make the patient confidential so the life partner doesn't get to know anything about the patient? How about when there is no official POA paperwork, there are multiple children, and every single one of them has a different idea of what the plan of care for the patient should be?

How about when the patient is clearly terminal (stage 4 cancer, end stage Alzheimer's), the patient's coded three times already and shows signs of severe neurological damage on top of baseline dementia (seizing/posturing) and the family still wants the patient to be a full code? Is a slow code ever acceptable?