April 28, 2003
Apology, forgiveness, and disclosing medical error
Consider the following hypotheses: (1) When health professionals realize they have committed a serious, harm-causing error, their feelings of humiliation, betrayal of the patient, and fear of lawsuit can be so unbearable that many will resort to all sorts of conscious and unconscious strategies to diminish or eliminate the emotional pain they are experiencing; and (2) When individuals who have gone for health care strongly suspect that they have been seriously harmed by a medical mistake, they will often experience intense feelings of bewilderment, sadness, and anger. If these feelings are not addressed, they can easily escalate into sadistic rage.
April 18, 2003
Making a Medical Decision
The next meeting of the Clinical Ethics Faculty Seminar entitled:
"Making a Medical Decision: Patient Preferences, Informed Consent, and the
Patient-Doctor Relationship"