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Related Experiment Videos

How Medical Error Shapes Physicians' Perceptions of Learning: An Exploratory Study.

Lisa Shepherd1, Kori A LaDonna, Sayra M Cristancho

  • 1L. Shepherd is associate professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Emergency Medicine, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9551-4546. K.A. LaDonna is assistant professor, Departments of Innovation in Medical Education and Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. S.M. Cristancho is assistant professor, Department of Surgery and Faculty of Education, and scientist, Centre for Education Research and Innovation, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada. S. Chahine is assistant professor, Department of Medicine and Faculty of Education, and scientist, Centre for Education Research and Innovation, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0488-773X.

Academic Medicine : Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
|April 12, 2019
PubMed
Summary

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Physicians experience significant personal responsibility and blame when learning from medical errors. Cultural and individual factors influence this learning process, highlighting the need for supportive systems to optimize error education.

Area of Science:

  • Medical Education
  • Patient Safety
  • Healthcare Quality Improvement

Background:

  • Medical errors are unavoidable due to the complexity and uncertainty inherent in healthcare.
  • Learning from medical errors is crucial for improving patient safety but is often hindered by silence, blame, and responsibility concerns.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore physicians' perceptions of learning from medical errors.
  • To investigate the interplay between personal responsibility, blame, and learning from errors.
  • To identify factors influencing physicians' ability to learn from medical mistakes.

Main Methods:

  • Conducted semistructured interviews with 19 physicians at Western University, Canada (2016-2017).
  • Employed iterative data collection and constant comparative analysis to identify themes.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Focused on physicians' experiences and perceptions of learning from medical errors.

    • Main Results:

    • Physicians reported strong feelings of personal responsibility and blame associated with medical errors.
    • Residency training emerged as a period with particularly memorable error experiences.
    • Both cultural factors (e.g., error normalization, peer support) and individual factors (e.g., emotional response, confidence) were found to impact learning from errors.

    Conclusions:

    • Effective learning from medical errors necessitates navigating complex issues of blame and responsibility.
    • System-based approaches must acknowledge physicians' sense of responsibility to optimize error learning.
    • Fostering a learning culture that supports physicians, especially residents, is key to maximizing educational opportunities from medical errors.