Korean Journal of Medical Ethics

The Korean Society for Medical Ethics

Korean J Med Ethics 2011; 14(3):320-334

pISSN: 2005-8284, eISSN: 2234-3598

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35301/ksme.2011.14.3.320

Article

의료오류 공개에 대한 대학생들의 태도 조사*

이수현¹, 김한아², 한흥식³, 김성수⁴^,^*

The Attitudes of College Students Regarding Doctors’ Disclosing Medical Errors

Su Hyun LEE¹, Han A KIM², Heung Sik HAN³, Sung Soo KIM⁴^,^*

¹부산대학교 대학원 의학과 인문사회의학전공 박사과정

²부산대학교 대학원 의학과 석사과정

³부산대학교 윤리교육과

⁴부산대학교 의학전문대학원 인문사회의학교실

¹Department of Social Studies of Medicine, Graduate School, Pusan National University

²Department of Medicine, Graduate School, Pusan National University

³Department of Ethical Education, Pusan National University

⁴Department of Social Studies of Medicine, School of Medicine, Pusan National University

^*교신저자: 김성수. 부산대학교 의학전문대학원 인문사회의학교실. 051-510-8036. tigerkss@pnu.edu

ⓒ Copyright 2011 The Korean Society for Medical Ethics. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Jul 29, 2011; Accepted: Sep 16, 2011

Published Online: Sep 30, 2011

ABSTRACT

Object: The purpose of this study was to identify the attitudes of patients regarding medical error.

Methods: The questionnaires were administrated to 145 college students in Busan, one hundred twenty three usable 123 questionnaires were analyzed. The questionnaires consist of 4 major concepts; 1) knowledge, 2) attitudes toward disclosure of medical error, 3) expectations for doctors' behaviors, 4) barriers to the disclosure of the medical error.

Results: Approximately 92% of respondents supported the immediate disclosure of medical errors, and 62.6% supported full disclosure including near misses. Approximately 57% believed that it would be most effective if doctors themselves communicated errors to patients, while almost 93% said that it was a doctor’s obligation to do so. Regarding reasons for disclosure, 44.7% said that it would reduce doctors’ feelings of guilt, while 45.5% said that it would also increase patient trust for doctors. Respondents also thought that the barriers to the full disclosure of medical errors were (1) damaged reputations (30.9%), (2) worries about medical lawsuits (22.8%), and (3) professional discipline (22.0%).

Conclusion: Most of the participants in this survey support the immediate disclosure of medical errors regardless of the seriousness of the error. Furthermore the participants regarded disclosure of medical error as doctors' obligation. In order to meet the patients' high expectation regarding the medical error, this might be a good time for us to find a way to close the gap between patients' expectation and doctors' current practice.

Keywords: 의료오류 공개; 의료오류 공개에 대한 환자의 태도; 의료오류 공개의 장애요인

Keywords: disclosure medical error; patients attitudes of medical error; barriers to disclosure of the medical error