Medical professionals in general should be upfront and honest with patients while they are under their care, whether it is a mistake that was done or the truth about their diagnosis. It is important for many individuals to have a trusting relationship with medical professionals and being truthful is one of the aspects of that trusting relationship. Although many medical professionals hide their mistakes from their patients, this should not be the case. Understandably many medical professionals hide mistakes because they are afraid of lawsuits that could jeopardize their careers or worse place them in jail (Kelly, 2007). Ethically, I believe that all medical professionals should admit their mistakes to their patients. As stated above, it can help build a relationship with your medical professional. …show more content…
Many medical professionals don’t admit to their mistakes because it is looked down upon in the medical field (Reynolds, Stone, Nixon, & Wear, 2001). There are several barriers that need to be addressed in order for medical professionals to admit to their mistakes. First, educating individuals on how to admit to their mistakes. Kelly 2007, states that many institutions don’t teach physicians on how to deal with medical errors. This should be addressed during school so that individuals who have the potential to make such medical errors know how to handle them when they arise. Secondly medical professional believe that admitting to an error can cause additional harm to patients. In reality, a medical mistake can be the total opposite for some individuals and it shouldn’t be the medical professional to decide if it is going to cause additional
Truth in medicine is a big discussion among many medical professionals about how doctors handle the truth. Truth to a patient can be presented in many ways and different doctors have different ways of handling it. Many often believe that patient’s being fully aware of their health; such as a bad diagnosis, could lead to depression compared to not knowing the diagnosis. In today’s society doctor’s are expected to deliver patient’s the whole truth in order for patients to actively make their own health decisions. Shelly K. Schwartz discusses the truth in her essay, Is It Ever Ok to Lie to Patients?. Schwartz argument is that patients should be told the truth about their health and presented and addressed in a way most comfortable to the patient.
One of the most complex, ever-changing careers is the medical field. Physicians are not only faced with medical challenges, but also with ethical ones. In “Respect for Patients, Physicians, and the Truth”, by Susan Cullen and Margaret Klein, they discuss to great extent the complicated dilemmas physicians encounter during their practice. In their publication, Cullen and Klein discuss the pros and cons of disclosing the medical diagnosis (identifying the nature or cause of the disease), and the prognosis (the end result after treating the condition). But this subject is not easily regulated nor are there guidelines to follow. One example that clearly illustrates the ambiguity of the subject is when a patient is diagnosed with a serious, life-threatening
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) reported in 1999 that between 44,000 and 98,000 people die each year in the United States due to a preventable medical error. A report written by the National Quality Forum (NQF) found that over a decade after the IOM report the prevalence of medical errors remains very high (2010). In fact a study done by the Hearst Corporation found that the number of deaths due to medical error and post surgical infections has increased since the IOM first highlighted the problem and recommended actions to reduce the number of events (Dyess, 2009).
I have been aware of medical errors for some time now. While in nursing school I have heard many stories from classmates and instructors of instances where people they knew, or loved ones had been either harmed or died because of a medical error. I have had experiences with medical errors. When I was in the hospital for the birth of my first child, the nurse that came to change out my IV bag did not check the
Doctors are not infallible; they can make mistakes. However, it is the responsibility of the medical authorities to notify the patient of the missteps. In this episode of Grey’s Anatomy, Dr. Derek had performed two surgeries on his patient, who had had seizures. Due to Derek’s mistake in the first surgery, the patient has to undergo a second surgery. The second surgery is successful, but later on, Dr. Addison informs the patient that she was preeclamptic. The patient being unaware of the term asks if she needs to be worried. Derek then stops Addison from disclosing the truth because Derek wanted to enjoy the success of the surgery and did not want the patient who just recovered from one surgery, to worry again. Nevertheless, Addison warns Derek
Medical error occurs more than most people realize and when a doctor is found negligent the patient has the right to sue for compensation of their losses. Debates and issues arise when malpractice lawsuits are claimed. If a patient is filing for a medical malpractice case, the l...
He said, “Studies of specific types of error, too, have found that repeat offenders are not the problem. The fact is that virtually everyone who cares for hospital patients will make serious mistakes, and even commit acts of negligence, every year. For this reason, doctors are seldom outraged when the press reports yet another medical horror story. They usually have a different reaction: This could be me. The important question isn’t how to keep bad physicians from harming patients; it’s how to keep good physicians from harming patients” (658). Like Gawande asked—how do you keep good physicians from harming patients? Even the best of doctors and surgeons manage to make mistakes that led to being sued or even worst—they get to experience the death of their
Any patient harmed by the provision of a healthcare service is informed of the fact and an appropriate remedy offered, regardless of whether a complaint has been made or question asked about it. This is how the term “candour” is defined by Robert Francis in his report (1). GMC defines the professional duty of candour as openness and honesty when things go wrong (2). This is applicable not only to patients but also to colleagues, employers and regulators. In a profession as stressful as medicine where doctors and other healthcare professionals are entrusted with the provision of care to people, it is vital for the care givers to be completely honest with their patients, especially when things wrong. It is not an easy task and doctors hesitate to do so due to a number of reasons such as the fact that doctors see themselves as solely benevolent and do not appreciate that they may be sources
In conclusion, doctors have a moral obligation to tell patients the truth about their illnesses, unless the patient clearly states that he or she does not want to know. Medicine is a field that works to treat the patient. This means that physicians are there for guidance, using expertise and years of education to guide them to a cure. This does not mean that a physician should make decisions about the patients without proper consent. Believing that patients will misunderstand the diagnosis, or assuming that they won’t want to know are not valid reasons for keeping information from the person. Communication is important in a medical setting, and is especially important when talking about the health of an individual. With relevant, appropriate and humanistic communication, telling a patient their diagnosis can and should be done in a caring way.
Hospital medical errors can involve medicines (e.g., wrong drug, wrong dose, bad combination), an inaccurate or incomplete diagnosis, equipment malfunction, surgical mistakes, or laboratory errors. High medical error rates with serious consequences occurs in intensive care units, operating rooms, and emergency departments; but, serious errors that harmed patients may have prevented or minimized. Understand the nature of the error
In saying 1.5 million Americans have witnessed hospital errors in the care of the medical center or even 40,000-100,000 deaths is a ridiculous amount of faults. Errors should be minimized, especially when dealing with people’s lives. The number of deaths is so high hospitals should take notice and really pinpoint where their facility is miscalculating and create in-service training to all employees and not just the ones that are making the errors but all employees. This will decrease the chances of errors made in the hospital. With continuous training every month there can be a huge change in the number of mistakes. The fact that these inaccuracies are even causing deaths really highlight the importance of the need for a change. Families
To help with the recovery, physicians looked at the issue as part of their profession and recovery as part of their spiritual and moral commitment to the medical field. . (Plews-Ogan et al. 237) Medical mistakes are often associated with a lack of knowledge or inexperience. This negative association causes a push for the doctor to become as familiar with their specialization as possible in hopes of creating a greater sense of expertise. Education and experience are two words that are customary to medical providers. Commonly degrees take around eight years to obtain. Following graduate school doctors must obtain a license through an application process, and can expect three years of residency and fellowship. Completing your fellowship allows you the option to finally begin your individual practice. Each year, while in practice a doctor must complete CME (Continuing Medical Education) credits that meet annual requirements for maintaining a license. (American Medical Association). Credentials are a large part of what allows physicians to attempt to successfully move on from so many stressful scenarios. After a physician becomes comfortable with the amount of knowledge obtained often physicians work on the prevention of medical mistakes. Often this prevention is led by spreading the awareness of adverse events with coworkers and patients. The methods of recovery used on the sixty-three physicians in allowed for at least a partial recovery. With appropriate methods physicians are able to turn this awful moment into a pigment of the past. Allowing for them to proceed into the future with a new knowledge and perspective of medical mistakes. Personally I feel that the subject of medical errors is one of the utmost
Of the 28 participants interviewed, nine reported making a medication error or experiencing a ‘near miss’ with particular focus on the level of supervision that was provided. A ‘near miss’ refers to a time when a student makes an error in the preparation of medication for a patient (Reid -Searl, 2010). The error had the potential to cause harm but no harm was initiated because it was corrected before administering it to the patient. Most of the participants who stated causing an actual error described receiving no supervision from a registered nurse at the time. One participant even stated that when realizing he made an error he went straight to the nurse to confess and she told him to not tell anyone and brush it under the rug. The results of the study suggest that errors are more likely to be made when required supervision levels are not provided by the registered nurse.
The health care is extremely important to society because without health care it would not be possible for individuals to remain healthy. The health care administers care, treats, and diagnoses millions of individual’s everyday from newborn to fatal illness patients. The health care consists of hospitals, outpatient care, doctors, employees, and nurses. Within the health care there are always changes occurring because of advance technology and without advance technology the health care would not be as successful as it is today. Technology has played a big role in the health care and will continue in the coming years with new methods and procedures of diagnosis and treatment to help safe lives of the American people. However, with plenty of advance technology the health care still manages to make an excessive amount of medical errors. Health care organizations face many issues and these issues have a negative impact on the health care system. There are different ways medical errors can occur within the health care. Medical errors are mistakes that are made by health care providers with no intention of harming patients. These errors rang from communication error, surgical error, manufacture error, diagnostic error, and wrong medication error. There are hundreds of thousands of patients that die every year due to medical error. With medical errors on the rise it has caused the United States to be the third leading cause of death. (Allen.M, 2013) Throughout the United States there are many issues the he...
It is shocking to know that every year 98000 patients die from medical errors that can be prevented(Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J. M., & Donaldson, M. S. (Eds.), 2000). Medical errors are not a new issue in our healthcare system; these have been around for a long time. Hospitals have been trying to improve quality care and patients safety by implementing different strategies to prevent and reduce medical errors for past thirty years. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in America (Allen, 2013). In addition medical errors are costing our healthcare system an estimated $735 billion to $980 billion (Andel, Davidow, Hollander, & Moreno, 2012).