The medico‐legal helpline: A content analysis of postgraduate medical trainee advice calls

Abstract

Available literature exploring medical liability and postgraduate medical education consistently posits that postgraduate trainees worry about their exposure to medico-legal liability. This assumption has formed the basis for research and curriculum development. The aim of this study was to describe the encounters that lead physicians-in-training to seek external medico-legal guidance. We sought to provide empirical evidence on trends and themes related to medico-legal advice requests from physicians-in-training. Our primary dataset consisted of records of calls from physicians-in-training to the medico-legal helpline of the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA), a national mutual defence organisation providing medico-legal advice and liability protection for over 95% of Canada's physicians. We conducted a trend analysis of the frequency of calls for advice over 10years from physician-in-training compared with non-trainee physicians. Furthermore, we performed a content analysis of calls made over the most recent 2years (2016-2017) to elucidate the concerns that led to trainees seeking medico-legal advice. The 10-year trend analysis revealed that the annual growth in the number of physician-in-training advice calls (8.8%) exceeded other CMPA physician groups and was in excess of trainee population growth over the same period. The content analysis identified four core themes: managing confidential information, complex care situations, academic matters and patient safety incidents. Our findings indicate that trainees are asking questions about their medico-legal liability with increasing frequency. This study contributes new evidence on the issues that lead to trainees seeking help. We believe that understanding trainees' medico-legal advice requests will support medical educators to tailor quality improvement education to learners' needs.