FIlipe Santos MD

Know if you’re exam ready and walk into the exam with confidence!

I extended by “book writing frenzy” to work and did an orientation book for all incoming fellows with everything I could think of and that could help them get started! Today I got this kind message (and chocolates 😍) from a fellow and it made my day!

How do you manage fatigue?

Comment FSBOOKS to see the study plans that can help you organize your preparation for the exams.

One of the hardest moments in any ethics station is when your patient can no longer speak for themselves.
Who decides now? And by what rule?

It is completely natural to turn to the family first. They are right there, they know the patient, and they want to do right by them. And they do matter. But they are not where the decision starts, and there are two steps that come before them. Once you can see the order clearly, this gets much simpler.

So let me walk you through the whole sequence, the way I teach it in the Ethics book.

Ethics for MCCQE and NAC is built for this. Not a wall of statutes to memorize. The principles the exam actually tests, with the challenges outlined.

The sequence:

-> Capacity first. A diagnosis is not incapacity. If the patient is capable, the patient decides.
-> Then the order. A substitute the patient chose, or a court appointed, comes before any relative.
-> Then family, in rank. Spouse, then an adult child or parent, then down the line.
-> The rule that outranks the order. Follow the patient’s prior capable wishes. Only then, best interests.

-> Common mistake: “She would have wanted this” is not a prior capable wish.

The order picks who. The wish picks what.

Volume 2 of the Path to Practice Series.

Comment “ETHICS” for the digital book link in your DM. Comment “PAPERCOPY” for the Amazon paperback.

Save this for your Ethics binder. Send it to an ITP preparing for the exam.

Are you expecting the MCCQE results? It’s now available!

Comment how you’ve done! Good luck to everyone!