From Failure to Forgiveness: Enacting an Embodied Emotional Cycle of Redemption Through a Medical Mistake Disclosure and Apology Program

• In Event: Problematic discourses in provider-patient interactions

Abstract

When people make a mistake, we expect an apology. When physicians make a medical mistake, they are often not given the opportunity to apologize for the mistake. This paper explores how one hospital negotiates the aftermath of medical mistakes through a disclosure and apology program. This paper positions the VAMC’s disclosure and apology program as an embodied redemption process and explores how stakeholders work through the emotional experiences of disclosing and apologizing for medical mistakes.

Authors

• Heather Carmack, Missouri State University

• Lynn Harter, Ohio University