Foundations of Comprehension Basics
If you've already read the MCAT 2015 test information, then you're familiar with the fact that the exam tests your skills in a number of different ways. On the Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS) section, the skills assessed fall into three separate categories. This article explains the first, most basic (easiest!) skill: Foundations of Comprehension. Click the CARS link above to find information about the other two.
- Skill 1: Foundations of Comprehension
- Skill 2: Reasoning Within the Text
- Skill 3: Reasoning Beyond the Text
Specific Tasks
The content on the CARS section with the explanations of specific terms, illustrations and examples will be enough for you to answer the questions presented; you will not need to study any additional content to prepare for this portion, which is much different from the sciences sections. Rather, you'll need to practice your reading comprehension so you can answer questions that ask you to complete the following tasks:
- Find the main idea
- Identify the author's purpose throughout the text and in various portions of the text
- Comprehend vocabulary in context
- Display how an author digresses from a main theme
- Locate supporting details, the thesis statement, and broad ideas
- Comprehend the author's perspective
- Understand the passage's structure (cause and effect, point/counterpoint, chronological, etc.)
- Explain rhetorical devices
- Delineate the author's tone and the reasons for its usage
- Identify the reasons an author may cite another's point of view
- Make inferences
Questions
The questions that relate to the Foundations of Comprehension skills will refer to a passage of text that precedes them. Here's a sample question taken from the AAMC MCAT 2015 preview guide:
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A predetermined covenant of confidentiality characterizes the physician-patient relationship. Possession of contraband in prison is illegal. But suppose that during a routine medical examination, a prison physician notices that Prisoner A has drugs and paraphernalia. Should the physician report the crime, or should confidentiality prevail?
Professional communications between physicians and patients are statutorily protected as confidential. A routine physical examination is part of the confidential communication, like information obtained by taking a medical history and data entered in the patient’s health record. Health professionals have an interest in maintaining confidentiality so that patients will feel comfortable in revealing personal but necessary information. Prisoners do not possess full Constitutional rights to privacy, but they generally retain rights to privacy when there is a special relationship between communicants, such as the physician-patient relationship. In fact, respect for confidentiality is particularly important in a prison hospital setting, in which patients feel distrust because physicians are often employed by the incarcerating institution.Clinical autonomy for health professionals in the prison setting is essential for good medical practice. Physicians working in prisons also retain the privilege of confidential interactions with patients, although the prison authorities may try to pressure doctors to supply information. Even if physicians are employed by the prison, their first responsibility is to their patients. The circumstances in which to give privileged information to prison authorities remains the physician’s decision.
The finding that contraband detected during an examination has the appearance of drugs and paraphernalia, like all results of the examination, is privileged information to be treated confidentially. The right to privacy supersedes a duty to report the discovery because there is no imminent threat to others. In contrast, a weapon harbored by a prisoner represents an imminent threat to other prisoners and to prison staff. Thus, upon discovering a sequestered weapon during the course of a routine examination, the physician has a “duty to warn.” According to case law, when the physician believes that a significant threat of harm exists, the duty to warn takes precedence over the patient’s right to privacy.
The case of Prisoner A raises the issue of the point at which to draw the line between the duty to protect the public and the duty to protect patients’ privacy. Although legal guidelines can assist the physician in making the choice, the health professional must rely on a guiding principle of the medical profession: Where no danger to others exists, patients come first. The possibility of discovering contraband during routine examinations of prisoner patients reinforces the need for informed consent at several stages. First, prisoner patients should be evaluated and treated only after they provide informed consent, unless they are incompetent. Before an X-ray is taken, they should be informed that it can demonstrate metal and other foreign bodies, and their agreement to the procedure should be obtained. Second, if a concealed weapon is discovered during a routine examination, the prisoner patient should be informed that the discovery will be reported and given the opportunity to surrender the weapon to authorities before more forcible means are taken to remove it. If Prisoner A is harboring drugs and a needle, drug use is quite possibly contributing to A’s health problem. It is the physician’s responsibility to educate A about the potential harm of drug use.
Source: Material used in this test passage has been adapted from the following source: C. Levine (Ed.), Cases in Bioethics: Selections from the Hastings Center Report. ©1989 St. Martin's Press.
With respect to prisoners, “necessary information” (paragraph 2) probably refers most specifically to a patient’s:
A. past criminal activities.
B. use of illegal drugs.
C. intent to harm others.
D. psychiatric history.
Answer: B
