Do you think general practitioners have an obligation to report their patients' health status to a public health agency, if their patients have active infectious diseases?
Thank you so much for posting these prompts! Please share anymore that you have!
I am currently a university student and know of a question that was asked to students applying to a graduate program to test their critical thinking strategies. I have included the question below. Hope it helps!
Three people are stranded on a remote island they were forced to make an emergency landing due to a mechanical systems failure. A mechanic, pregnant woman and the pilot of the plane are the three survivors and none of them are seriously injured. There is enough fresh water for two people to survive three days. Within that time, it MAY be possible for the mechanic to fix the plane. If you had to choose only two people to give the water to, who would you choose and why?
Hi! Thank you for your blog :) How would you answer the plane scenario? If one decided to give water to the mechanic, then one would need the pilot to be alive to use the plane. However I would hope for them to share the water with the pregnant woman as well. Maybe the pilot can also help with finding extra water for the rest of them/??
I would give the water to the pregnant woman and the mechanic. The pregnant women's nutritional and hydration needs are greater due to her having to support a second life. Without water, the life of the mother and child would be at risk. The mechanic is vital to the escape of the survivors. He is the only one capable of fixing the plane, and as this will be difficult and take time, he will require hydration in order to continue to focus and work. If he were to become dehydrated, his work would be impacted and their possibility of escape would diminish. During this time, the pilot and pregnant women could scour the island in search of other possible sources of water (collected rain water, boiling sea-water etc...) while the pilot explains the basics of flying a plane to the woman in case he were to perish.
To answer the public health question, it's very important for practitioners to report patients with infectious disease for various reasons. The department of health has to figure out why there is an incident of such an infectious disease; whether there are increased incidents in certain areas and why. They also have to implement programs to effectively prevent and control the spread of that infectious disease. Without the reporting, we could be risking the health of our communities.
The plane scenario: All three require water for survival. They should ration the water amongst all three to last two days. Perhaps give a little more to the pregnant woman as her needs are higher. While the mechanic works on the plane, the pilot and the pregnant woman should look for water/other nutritional resources. All three should exchange information pertinent to their survival. The pilot and the mechanic should both share information with each other and the woman on how to fly/fix the plane in case either one of them died.
No I don’t think GP’s have an obligation to report their patients health status to a public. I think they have to obtain consent first before releasing information to external agencies to respect patient confidentiality. I think the GP may ask the patient if he or she would like their information released and explain to him/her that it would useful for the public health agencies in helping to contain the disease. However, if the patient does not consent then the GP should keep the information private.
No I don’t think GP’s have an obligation to report their patients health status to a public. I think they have to obtain consent first before releasing information to external agencies to respect patient confidentiality. I think the GP may ask the patient if he or she would like their information released and explain to him/her that it would useful for the public health agencies in helping to contain the disease. However, if the patient does not consent then the GP should keep the information private.
I believe it is the duty of GPs to report the occurrence of an infectious disease to the public health agency for the purposes of collecting data in order to control the spread of the infectious disease. However, I do not think the GP should be able to disclose the patient's name/other information to the public. This would have both immediate and long-term consequences on the patient's health. For example, the patient may shunned or stereotyped by the rest of their community if their health status was released to the public. Their long term health could also be compromised because they may lose the trust they had in their physician and reduce their visits to health care professionals, even when they need it. Also, people with infectious diseases may not want to see their doctor in fear of being exposed, leading to them not getting the treatment and education they need. Therefore, I think confidentiality and protecting the patient's information is critical to maintain that physician-patient trust. However, it is the responsibility of the physician to report any new infectious diseases for further epidemiological studies.
Hi;
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for posting these prompts! Please share anymore that you have!
I am currently a university student and know of a question that was asked to students applying to a graduate program to test their critical thinking strategies. I have included the question below. Hope it helps!
Three people are stranded on a remote island they were forced to make an emergency landing due to a mechanical systems failure. A mechanic, pregnant woman and the pilot of the plane are the three survivors and none of them are seriously injured. There is enough fresh water for two people to survive three days. Within that time, it MAY be possible for the mechanic to fix the plane. If you had to choose only two people to give the water to, who would you choose and why?
Thanks for sharing, Jennifer!
ReplyDeleteI hope more people will post their mock MMI questions too, so that we can see a wide variety of them.
Hi! Thank you for your blog :)
ReplyDeleteHow would you answer the plane scenario?
If one decided to give water to the mechanic, then one would need the pilot to be alive to use the plane.
However I would hope for them to share the water with the pregnant woman as well.
Maybe the pilot can also help with finding extra water for the rest of them/??
What would you do??
I would give the water to the pregnant woman and the mechanic. The pregnant women's nutritional and hydration needs are greater due to her having to support a second life. Without water, the life of the mother and child would be at risk. The mechanic is vital to the escape of the survivors. He is the only one capable of fixing the plane, and as this will be difficult and take time, he will require hydration in order to continue to focus and work. If he were to become dehydrated, his work would be impacted and their possibility of escape would diminish. During this time, the pilot and pregnant women could scour the island in search of other possible sources of water (collected rain water, boiling sea-water etc...) while the pilot explains the basics of flying a plane to the woman in case he were to perish.
ReplyDeleteTo answer the public health question, it's very important for practitioners to report patients with infectious disease for various reasons. The department of health has to figure out why there is an incident of such an infectious disease; whether there are increased incidents in certain areas and why. They also have to implement programs to effectively prevent and control the spread of that infectious disease. Without the reporting, we could be risking the health of our communities.
ReplyDeleteThe plane scenario:
ReplyDeleteAll three require water for survival. They should ration the water amongst all three to last two days. Perhaps give a little more to the pregnant woman as her needs are higher. While the mechanic works on the plane, the pilot and the pregnant woman should look for water/other nutritional resources. All three should exchange information pertinent to their survival. The pilot and the mechanic should both share information with each other and the woman on how to fly/fix the plane in case either one of them died.
No I don’t think GP’s have an obligation to report their patients health status to a public. I think they have to obtain consent first before releasing information to external agencies to respect patient confidentiality. I think the GP may ask the patient if he or she would like their information released and explain to him/her that it would useful for the public health agencies in helping to contain the disease. However, if the patient does not consent then the GP should keep the information private.
ReplyDeleteNo I don’t think GP’s have an obligation to report their patients health status to a public. I think they have to obtain consent first before releasing information to external agencies to respect patient confidentiality. I think the GP may ask the patient if he or she would like their information released and explain to him/her that it would useful for the public health agencies in helping to contain the disease. However, if the patient does not consent then the GP should keep the information private.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is the duty of GPs to report the occurrence of an infectious disease to the public health agency for the purposes of collecting data in order to control the spread of the infectious disease. However, I do not think the GP should be able to disclose the patient's name/other information to the public. This would have both immediate and long-term consequences on the patient's health. For example, the patient may shunned or stereotyped by the rest of their community if their health status was released to the public. Their long term health could also be compromised because they may lose the trust they had in their physician and reduce their visits to health care professionals, even when they need it. Also, people with infectious diseases may not want to see their doctor in fear of being exposed, leading to them not getting the treatment and education they need. Therefore, I think confidentiality and protecting the patient's information is critical to maintain that physician-patient trust. However, it is the responsibility of the physician to report any new infectious diseases for further epidemiological studies.
ReplyDelete