You might be thinking, “What’s the point talking about all these errors? Just to poke at some doctors? What’s that going to accomplish?”
Actually, it’s pretty simple.
Everyone makes mistakes
Even the smartest, best educated, most motivated, most careful people make mistakes. What matters most is what we do about them. It also matters if you can learn from them, to prevent them from happening again, to you or someone else.
I didn’t like standing up before a client or boss and admitting a mistake I’d made, but I learned to do it. Sometimes the reaction was bad. But most of the time, if I had thought of some way to try to fix it, we learned from it and moved along.
Admitting to the mistakes I made in my own healthcare is also important. To me … for me … as well as for those of you who might learn from them. See the links below to the things I wish I could have do-overs on, and the mistakes my doctors have made that we’ve learned from.
Some doctors, I’ve found, will admit to an error. They will apologize and do what they can to fix the mistake, or at least stop it from getting worse. But surprisingly, to me at least, is that sometimes when it really counts, so many DON’T have the guts to admit to an error.
My goal with this blog?
Improvements. I want to trigger positive change. In the way doctors treat patients. The way patients manage their healthcare and work with their doctors. The way hospitals manage all the moving pieces. And medical schools – I want medical schools to consider new ways of teaching. And of learning.
I want doctors to do some soul-searching. To learn how important it is to be capable of saying, “I don’t know what this is. But I’m going to do my best to help you feel better while we’re trying to figure it out. And in the meantime, let’s see what services are available to help you.”
New doctors, so full of possibilities, also need tempering. An understanding that there will be times when they make a mistake. When the best thing they can do for their patient … and for themselves … will be to own it. To hold a hand while they admit it, to brace themselves and take the anger and bear the tears. To figure out what they can do to mitigate it, before swearing they will never make the same mistake again.
Or when they have to deliver really bad news, how to do it with grace and compassion.
As for patients – I genuinely want them to do better, too. To take greater responsibility for knowing about their bodies, their medical care, their medications/tests/treatments. I want them to work WITH their medical team, not just dump it all around the lab-coated necks of their physicians and then scream the house down if it doesn’t turn out perfectly.
Please comment – share your thoughts and experiences. It will make a real difference.
Thanks!
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