Medical Errors and the Trainee: Ethical Concerns

How medical errors are handled by individual physicians and hospital systems is a topic of considerable interest. In teaching hospitals, medical students and house officers often observe and commit mistakes. Commission of a mistake is associated with serious emotional turmoil and uncertainty among trainees as well as experienced physicians. Although disclosure is the ethical standard, the consequences of disclosure are feared by many. This article focuses on the issues that surround medical errors as they pertain to medical students and residents. It is important that this group of future physicians has appropriate training, mentoring, and support when dealing with errors.