Activity 10: Evaluation of Biomedical Literature

General Instruction: read the article Patients and Physicians Attitudes Regarding the
Disclosure of Medical Errors published in Journal of the American Medical Association in 2003.
Provide substantial COMMENTS on different sections of the article. - COPY PASTING FROM THE
ARTICLE IS PROHIBITED - (NOTE: control+F is a simple tool to identify copy pasting)

I. Title and Abstract

Patients and Physicians Attitude Regarding the Disclosure of Medical Errors. This article
draws upon the patients attitude as well as the physicians attitude regarding disclosure of
the medical errors. The goal of this article is to let the people comprehend about whats
really about Attitude when it comes to medical errors towards the physician. There are a lot
of factors that a physician can make a huge mistake and has to apologize to his or her
patient but the question is, Is it really okay to apologize to your patient after making a
mistake? We all know that medical errors are not just a simple error. Would the patient
understand it easily? How would the patient react to this kind of instances?

II. Introduction:

Medical Errors are very important to understand. Why? Because not all physicians are
perfect they can also make mistakes let us consider that thing. The Attitude of the patient
towards the Physician may affect the physicians performance towards his/her patient. It is
not unusual that physicians made mistakes but we are also expecting a lot from them
especially in the field of medicine, diseases, and etc. The hospital should be a safe place and
a physician should be the one to help you to recover from a certain disease. But in reality,
thats not just the case. Physician made errors and patients seek apologize to physician
whenever they made an error. We should not inculcate in our mind that just because they
are the physician doesnt mean they do not make mistakes. The Medical errors are
preventable adverse effect or care of the physician.

III. Methods:

(Not less than 10 sentences)

IV. Results

Patients were aware of the topic of errors in medicine. Patients conceived of medical errors
broadly despite being presented a standard definition of medical errors, many patients
including the poor service quality, not preventable adverse events, and deficient
interpersonal, perfect patients understood that medical errors were inevitable. Most
physicians concurred that they worry a lot about medical errors. In addition to fearing that
an error might harm patients. Physician said their worst fears about errors including
lawsuits, loss of patient trust, loss of colleagues respect, the patients informing friends
about their bad experience and diminished self-confidence. Physicians agreed the principle
that patients should be told about any error that caused harm, and many said that such
disclosure was imperative. Some physicians said that there was no need to disclose an error
if the harm was trivial or if the patient was unaware that the error had taken place. Patients
had mixed opinions about whether they should be told about near misses because some
patients thought that hearing about near misses would alert them to what errors they
should watch for and would reassure them that the systems to prevent errors from reaching
patients were working. Both the patients and physicians had unmet needs following errors.
Physicians agreed that harmful errors should be disclosed.

V. Discussion:

VI. Conclusion:

Physicians may not provide the information and the emotional support that the patients
seek following harmful medical errors. Physicians must work hard to meet patients desires
for an apology and for the information, cause and prevention of errors. Insights into the
 patients or physicians attitude toward error disclosure could improve the way institutions
and practitioners handle these types of events. An important element of the response to
medical errors is the interaction between the patient who experienced the error and that
physician. Strategies for responding to medical errors should simultaneously consider the
attitudes of physicians and patients about errors and their disclosure. Institution should
address the emotional needs of practitioners who are involved in medical errors.

Discussion and Conclusion:

Ive learned that attitude is very important towards your patient. As a future pharmacist, I must consider
a lot of things from my patient if I made a medical error.