A Cycle of Redemption in a Medical Error Disclosure and Apology Program.
Physicians accept that they have an ethical responsibility to disclose and apologize for medical errors; however, when physicians make a medical error, they are often not given the opportunity to disclose and apologize for the mistake. In this article, I explore how one hospital negotiated the aftermath of medical mistakes through a disclosure and apology program. Specifically, I used Burke's cycle of redemption to position the hospital's disclosure and apology program as a redemption process and explore how the hospital physicians and administrators worked through the experiences of disclosing and apologizing for medical errors.
James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA carmachj@jmu.edu.
Heather J
HJ
Carmack
communication; disclosure; emotions / emotion work; safety, patient