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Surgeons’ Reactions to Error

“First, Do No Harm”: Rectifying the Perceived Hypocrisy of the Hippocratic Oath

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Surgeons as Educators

Abstract

How do surgeons react to error or patient complications? What factors affect these reactions and how do these reactions affect future performance? This chapter will shed light on recent work that explored surgeons’ reactions to adverse events. Several psychological theories are proposed, and ways they might help toward a greater understanding of the surgeon in the midst of an adverse event are suggested. While psychological theories help explain the inner workings of our brain and subsequent emotional reactions as human beings to these events, surgeons are also embedded in a very powerful culture that influences our interpretation and experience of events. Therefore, we will also interrogate the surgical culture and accuse it somewhat of being at the epicenter of these reactions. Recognizing that it is impossible to “do no harm” over the course of a surgical career, we will provide a language to conceptualize, understand, and teach the experience of adverse events in surgery in a new way. We argue that, by reducing the stigma around admitting error and instead framing the unavoidable experience of adverse events as an opportunity for growth and reflection, surgeons and learners may open new avenues in which to harness surgical expertise.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wilson Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Melanie Hammond Mobilio & Carol-anne Moulton

  2. Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Carol-anne Moulton

  3. Division of General Surgery, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Carol-anne Moulton

  4. Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Carol-anne Moulton

Authors
  1. Melanie Hammond Mobilio
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  2. Carol-anne Moulton
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Correspondence to Carol-anne Moulton .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Urology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA

    Tobias S. Köhler

  2. Department of Surgery, Urology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, Illinois, USA

    Bradley Schwartz

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Mobilio, M.H., Moulton, Ca. (2018). Surgeons’ Reactions to Error. In: Köhler, T., Schwartz, B. (eds) Surgeons as Educators . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64728-9_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64728-9_18

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64728-9

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