2.5 Ethics & Professional Practice
Key Takeaways
- Ethics and Professional Practice is 3-5 of 110 questions and is the most reliably scorable area: the consistent answer protects public health, safety, and welfare.
- Under the NCEES Model Rules and NSPE Code, engineers must hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public above client or employer interests.
- Engineers must perform services only in their areas of competence and must issue objective, truthful public statements.
- Conflicts of interest must be disclosed; engineers may not accept compensation from more than one party on the same project without full disclosure and consent.
- Licensure follows the path: ABET degree, pass the FE to earn the EIT/EI designation, gain about four years of qualifying experience, then pass the PE exam for licensure.
The paramountcy principle
Ethics and Professional Practice is 3-5 of 110 questions and should be near-automatic points. Nearly every scenario resolves to one rule from the NCEES Model Rules and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) Code of Ethics: engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public. When the public's welfare conflicts with a client's wishes, an employer's schedule, or your own financial interest, public welfare wins. If an answer choice protects the public, it is almost always correct.
The NSPE Code organizes duties into Fundamental Canons. The high-frequency exam canons are:
- Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.
- Perform services only in areas of your competence.
- Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.
- Act for each employer or client as a faithful agent or trustee, avoiding conflicts of interest.
- Avoid deceptive acts.
- Conduct yourself honorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully to enhance the profession's reputation.
High-frequency exam scenarios
| Scenario | Correct action |
|---|---|
| You discover a design flaw that endangers the public | Notify the proper authority; do not stay silent to protect a client |
| Asked to seal/stamp work outside your discipline | Decline; practice only within your area of competence |
| Offered a gift or kickback from a vendor on your project | Refuse; it creates a conflict of interest |
| Working for two clients with competing interests | Disclose to all parties; proceed only with full consent |
| Pressured to sign off on incomplete or unsafe work | Refuse; document concerns |
| Tempted to overstate qualifications in a proposal | Be truthful; misrepresentation violates the Code |
Intellectual property and credit
Engineers must give credit for work and respect proprietary information and patents. Designs, drawings, and data developed for a client generally belong to that client; reusing them elsewhere without permission is unethical and may be illegal.
Confidentiality vs. public safety
Confidentiality to a client is a real duty, but it does not override the duty to protect the public. If concealing information would endanger people, the engineer must disclose to the appropriate authority.
The path to licensure
Professional Engineer (PE) licensure follows a defined sequence, and the FE is step two:
- Earn an engineering degree from an ABET-accredited program (EAC/ABET).
- Pass the FE exam to earn the Engineer Intern (EI) or Engineer-in-Training (EIT) designation.
- Complete the required qualifying engineering experience (commonly about four years, set by each state board).
- Pass the discipline-specific PE exam to become a licensed Professional Engineer.
Licensure is granted by individual state licensing boards, so specific experience requirements and rules vary by jurisdiction even though the FE and PE exams are national NCEES exams. Only a licensed PE may seal engineering documents and offer engineering services to the public.
A junior engineer finds that a released product has a safety defect that could injure users. The client insists on keeping it quiet to avoid a recall. What does the NSPE Code require?
In the standard U.S. path to PE licensure, what designation does passing the FE exam earn?