[Spoiler] Confusing question from amboss assessment

[maieutic]

Question no. 12, block 2.

I'll paraphrase the question: A 5 year old child with a viral URTI is brought in by her mother. She asks for a prescription of antibiotics for her child, mentioning that "last time" he was prescribed some by another doctor, and they helped him. What would be the most appropriate response?

Option C was: "Why do you think antibiotics would help your son recover?"
Option E was: "I understand your concern, but antibiotics would not treat your child's illness and would put him at risk of adverse effects"

I remember a similar question in UWorld, and the general idea I've picked up is to always engage the patient in a discussion to understand his/her thinking, so that it can be addressed. For this reason, I picked C, since I felt it was the better way to initiate dialogue, as opposed to E, which I felt comes afterwards. This is in line with what I've learned in UWorld.

The correct answer was E. C was marked as incorrect because it was "condescending". English isn't my first language, but I'm by no means poor at it. I have difficulty understanding how option C is condescending, unless the tone made it so. Considering 64% got the question right, I can only conclude I'm missing something thats preventing me from realizing what makes C condescending/rude.

Any help will be appreciated!

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[FindersFee5]

Question no. 12, block 2.

I'll paraphrase the question: A 5 year old child with a viral URTI is brought in by her mother. She asks for a prescription of antibiotics for her child, mentioning that "last time" he was prescribed some by another doctor, and they helped him. What would be the most appropriate response?

Option C was: "Why do you think antibiotics would help your son recover?"
Option E was: "I understand your concern, but antibiotics would not treat your child's illness and would put him at risk of adverse effects"

I remember a similar question in UWorld, and the general idea I've picked up is to always engage the patient in a discussion to understand his/her thinking, so that it can be addressed. For this reason, I picked C, since I felt it was the better way to initiate dialogue, as opposed to E, which I felt comes afterwards. This is in line with what I've learned in UWorld.

The correct answer was E. C was marked as incorrect because it was "condescending". English isn't my first language, but I'm by no means poor at it. I have difficulty understanding how option C is condescending, unless the tone made it so. Considering 64% got the question right, I can only conclude I'm missing something thats preventing me from realizing what makes C condescending/rude.

Any help will be appreciated!

This is a poorly written question. I think either would be an appropriate answer in real life, and you're correct that in general on NBMEs you want to choose the option that gives you more information. Don't worry too much about this Q.

 

[ClosetCentrist]

I remember this question too - AMBOSS is notorious for these kinds of questions, where they care more about trying to be tricky than teaching you how to answer correctly for the exam. The right answer is basically always to try and get more information from the individual, ignore their strange rationale.