There is a right answer but you don’t have the right right answer. Here’s what my priorities would be: 1. Understand your role - this physician is clearly out of line in his remarks, and it is likely other members of the team have also noticed this, but the current priority is to keep the team functioning well and not to endanger the pt’s health, as long as you think she isn’t in immediate danger. Distraction, especially criticism, is not only inappropriate it could be dangerous. 2. Talk to other members of the team - what do they think? Do they excuse him, or maybe there’s already an ongoing investigation but this was an emergency surgery or whatever etc 3. Talk to whatever is your preferred authority. Chief nurse, hospital ethicist, risk manager, another attending you trust, whatever there’s plenty of reasonable options to ensure that your concerns and his behavior get up the chain.

In fact, they mostly want to find out if you’re the type of person who is inflexible to the point that you can only either not say anything ever or confront the physician right now. Both are failing answers, you must be nuanced and people smart as you must be in most situational MMI answers.