Patient Safety & Quality Improvement USMLE Step 1 Practice Question
A 52-year-old male presents with acute dyspnea, HR 118/min, BP 168/92, RR 28, SpO2 89%. Chest X-ray reveals pulmonary edema. During root cause analysis of a delayed diuretic administration, investigators find the resident physician hesitated to question the attending's order for fluid bolus despite recognizing it contradicted the patient's elevated BNP (850 pg/mL) and clinical presentation. The resident had no prior documentation of speaking up. This communication dynamic is best described as which concept?
Answer choices
- AAuthority gradientCorrect answer
- BFundamental attribution error
- CGroupthink
- DAnchoring bias
- EConfirmation bias
- FAvailability heuristic
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