SE13P OPEN DISCLOSURE PROGRAM: SHOULD ALL TRAINEE SURGEONS BE EDUCATED?

Abstract

Open disclosure is the open discussion of incidents or errors that results in harm to a patient while receiving health care. Disclosing medical errors respects patient autonomy, and truth‐telling is desired by patients and their surrogates and is endorsed by ethicists and many professional organisations. Despite this, recent research would suggest that, the full disclosure of errors to patients by physicians especially by trainee doctors is very low (i.e. 24%). The question remains how can one change this culture?A two day open disclosure consultant training program introduced by Queensland Health was attended with the sole purpose being to establish a working group of senior clinicians to lead institutional open disclosure. To our knowledge no such programme exists for trainee doctors. Introducing open disclosure education during the early part of training may alleviate concerns of the trainees in terms of support the institution would provide should medical errors occur. The implementation of such programmes may also encourage junior doctors to report errors more openly without fear of repercussion. The knock on effect would be a more ‘open disclosure’ orientated culture which fosters greater trust from patients and their surrogates.We strongly believe that training in open disclosure should be an integral part of the surgical training program and health care institutions and organisations should strengthen their support for these programs. This we hope will improve the clinical incident management and will facilitate more consistent and effective communication following an adverse event.