This week I had a case that ended with a poor outcome. I reviewed the case with a colleague, and they reminded me that the error could have happened to them.
Physicians train to make accurate clinical judgements. That drive towards improving our acumen is an explanation why doctors like to "talk shop" - here's what I saw, here's what I thought, here's what I did. Oh good catch, we'd say. Good thinking, we'd applaud.
What happens less often is sharing what we missed or when we made the wrong decision.
Everyone has their reasons for holding that information back, but one contributing factor that I'm learning about is shame. From Brené Brown, shame is "the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging." We want to hide where we looked less than stellar as shame threatens our professional identity.
My conversation with this colleague reminded me of advice during residency from Dr. Sasha Cormier's project about medical errors and emotional support, where she found that in addition to talking and listening, peers can provide "professional reaffirmation by telling the colleague that they are good at their job and…it was an error that others could have/would have made."
I have no illusions that I'll go through my career error-free, so it's having support like this that renews my spirit . And as long as I make time to own mistakes rather than run away from them, I'll do better next time.
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