title: Medical students' and residents' clinical and educational experiences with defensive medicine.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess medical students' and residents' experiences with defensive medicine, which is any deviation from sound medical practice due to a perceived threat of liability through either assurance or avoidance behaviors. Assurance behaviors include providing additional services of minimal clinical value. Avoidance behaviors include withholding services that are, or avoiding patients who are, perceived as high risk.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors conducted a cross-sectional survey of fourth-year medical students and third-year residents in 2010. Respondents rated how often malpractice liability concerns caused their teams to engage in four types of assurance and two types of avoidance behaviors using a four-point scale (never, rarely, sometimes, often). Respondents also rated how often their attending physicians explicitly recommended that liability concerns be taken into account when making clinical decisions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 126 of 194 medical students (65%) and 76 of 141 residents (54%) completed the survey. Of the responding medical students, 116 (92%) reported sometimes or often encountering at least one assurance practice, and 43 (34%) reported encountering at least one avoidance practice. Of the responding residents, 73 (96%) reported encountering at least one assurance practice, and 33 (43%) reported encountering at least one avoidance practice. Overall, 50 of 121 medical students (41%) and 36 of 68 residents (53%) reported that their attending physicians sometimes or often explicitly taught them to take liability into account when making clinical decisions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Medical trainees reported frequently encountering defensive medicine practices and often being taught to take malpractice liability into consideration during clinical decision making.
authors.affiliation: Division of Hospital Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA. keoleary@nmh.org
authors.forename: Kevin J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: O'Leary
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.forename: Mark V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001519:Behavior; D002641:Chicago; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003657:Decision Making; D003675:Defensive Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008318:Malpractice; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult