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🇬🇧 Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) · flashcards
Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) Professional Practice, Ethics and Communication Flashcards
51 question-and-answer cards covering Professional Practice, Ethics and Communication as it is examined in Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB). 24 of them are printed below, taken from across the deck — no signup, no paywall on the preview.
24 sample cards from the Professional Practice, Ethics and Communication deck
Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.
How is the refusal of treatment by a pregnant woman with capacity handled in UK law?
A competent pregnant woman may refuse treatment even if this risks harm to or the death of the fetus; the fetus has no legal personality before birth, so her autonomous refusal must be respected.
What does the 'Calgary-Cambridge' model structure in a clinical consultation?
It structures the medical interview into: initiating the session, gathering information, providing structure, building the relationship, explanation and planning, and closing the session — with building rapport and structuring running throughout.
What does the mnemonic ICE stand for in history taking, and why is it important?
Ideas, Concerns and Expectations — eliciting the patient's own understanding, worries and hopes for the consultation, which is central to patient-centred care and shared decision-making.
What does the SOCRATES mnemonic assess when taking a pain history?
Site, Onset, Character, Radiation, Associations, Time course, Exacerbating/relieving factors, and Severity.
What is 'shared decision-making' and how does it differ from informed consent?
Shared decision-making is a collaborative process where clinician and patient together select tests/treatments based on evidence and the patient's values and preferences. Informed consent is the agreement that results; shared decision-making is the broader two-way deliberation that precedes it.
Name a widely-used protocol for breaking bad news and list its steps.
SPIKES: Setting up the interview, assessing Perception (what the patient already knows), obtaining the patient's Invitation (how much they want to know), giving Knowledge (warning shot then information in chunks), addressing Emotions with empathy, and Strategy/Summary (plan and follow-up).
What is a 'warning shot' when breaking bad news?
A brief preparatory statement that alerts the patient that difficult news is coming (e.g. 'I'm afraid I have some serious news to discuss'), giving them a moment to prepare emotionally before the information is delivered.
How should a doctor respond to a patient's relative who asks them to withhold a diagnosis from the patient (collusion)?
Explore the relative's concerns empathetically, but explain you cannot lie to a patient who wishes to know; a competent patient has the right to information about their own health. Find out how much the patient actually wants to know rather than assuming.
How should a clinician approach an angry patient in a challenging consultation?
Stay calm and non-defensive, acknowledge and validate the emotion, listen actively, avoid arguing, apologise where appropriate, ensure personal safety, and try to identify and address the underlying concern.
How should a clinician respond when a patient discloses something prefaced by 'don't tell anyone, but...'?
Do not promise unconditional confidentiality; explain gently that you usually keep information confidential but may have to share it if there is a risk of serious harm to them or others, so that the patient can decide what to disclose.
What is the 'Swiss cheese model' of patient safety?
James Reason's model in which system defences are like slices of cheese with holes (latent and active failures); an incident occurs only when the holes momentarily align, allowing a hazard to pass through all layers. It promotes a systems approach rather than blaming individuals.
Distinguish a 'near miss', an 'adverse event', and a 'never event' in patient safety.
Near miss: an error that was caught before reaching the patient. Adverse event: an injury caused by medical management rather than the underlying disease. Never event: a serious, largely preventable patient safety incident that should never occur if proper barriers are in place (e.g. wrong-site surgery).
Give three examples of 'never events' in healthcare.
Wrong-site surgery, retained foreign object after a procedure, and wrong-route administration of medication (e.g. intravenous administration of a drug intended for the intrathecal/oral route). Others include mismatched blood transfusion and misplaced naso/orogastric tubes.
What is the recommended structured tool for clinical handover and what does it stand for?
SBAR: Situation (what is happening now), Background (relevant context/history), Assessment (what you think the problem is), and Recommendation (what you want done/need).
State the core medico-legal rule about documentation in clinical records.
Records must be clear, accurate, legible, contemporaneous (made at the time or as soon as possible), and signed/dated/timed — 'if it isn't documented, it didn't happen'. Never falsify or retrospectively alter records to mislead.
How should an error in a written clinical note be corrected?
Put a single line through the error so the original remains legible, write the correction, and sign, date and time the amendment — never obliterate, erase, or use correction fluid over the original entry.
What are Tuckman's stages of team development?
Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing — and later Adjourning (Mourning), describing how a team comes together, works through conflict, settles into roles, and reaches effective performance.
What is a 'human factors' approach to working in teams and safety?
It examines how human capabilities and limitations, environment, equipment design, and team communication affect performance, aiming to design systems that reduce error and support safe behaviour rather than blaming individuals.
What is a 'safety huddle' in a clinical team?
A brief, regular (often daily) multidisciplinary meeting to proactively share information about patient safety risks, sick or deteriorating patients, staffing, and workload, so the team can act early to prevent harm.
Under the Care Act 2014, what are the six key principles of adult safeguarding?
Empowerment, Prevention, Proportionality, Protection, Partnership, and Accountability.
Who is a 'safeguarding adult at risk' under the Care Act 2014?
An adult (18+) who has needs for care and support (whether or not currently met), is experiencing or at risk of abuse or neglect, and as a result of their care needs is unable to protect themselves against the abuse, neglect or risk of it.
List the main categories of abuse recognised in adult safeguarding.
Physical, psychological/emotional, sexual, financial/material, neglect and acts of omission, discriminatory, organisational/institutional, domestic, modern slavery, self-neglect, and (now) coercive control.
What is 'Making Safeguarding Personal' (MSP)?
The principle that safeguarding responses should be person-led and outcome-focused — engaging the adult, understanding what they want to achieve, respecting their wishes and capacity, rather than a purely process-driven intervention.
What immediate actions should a clinician take on identifying a safeguarding concern about an adult at risk?
Ensure the person's immediate safety and medical needs, treat any injuries, document findings accurately and objectively, gain consent to share where possible (but share without consent if there is risk of serious harm or to others), and refer to the local safeguarding lead/adult social care, contacting police if a crime is suspected.
What this deck covers
The Professional Practice, Ethics and Communication deck follows the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) Professional Practice, Ethics and Communication syllabus — 4 chapters and 16 topics — so questions land on material that is genuinely examinable rather than trivia around it. That works out to roughly 12.8 cards per chapter.
Answers are written to be recallable, not just readable — averaging about 226 characters, which is long enough to carry the reasoning and short enough to say out loud.
A deck like this earns its keep on the second and third pass. Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then use the cards to find the specific facts that have not stuck.
Professional Practice, Ethics and Communication flashcards FAQ
How many Professional Practice, Ethics and Communication flashcards are in this Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) deck?
51 cards. This page previews 24 of them, sampled evenly across the deck so you can judge the difficulty before installing anything.
Are these Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) flashcards free?
Yes. The preview here is free to read with no signup, and the full 51-card deck is free inside the Examius app.
What do the Professional Practice, Ethics and Communication cards cover?
They follow the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) Professional Practice, Ethics and Communication syllabus — 4 chapters and 16 topics — so the questions track what is actually examinable.
How should I use these flashcards?
Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then drill the deck. Examius schedules each card with spaced repetition, so cards you keep missing come back sooner and ones you know drift further apart.