Have you ever made a mistake in your professional practice? Faced a malpractice suit or a College complaint? Many of you probably have, and you’ll know how profoundly it can impact every part of your life. Regardless of the outcome, simply facing this type of perceived criticism can be devastating. Mistakes are a normal part of life, and yet feelings of shame are common in medicine. Our medical culture can add stigma that leads us to avoid seeking the support we need from our colleagues, family, and friends. We’ll provide pearls from our experience at the Canadian Medical Protective Association where we support physicians through medico-legal matters, and we’ll also discuss empowering ourselves and others to compassionately navigate patient safety incidents, medico-legal events, and the universal human experience of making mistakes. We will present strategies that can help you to not only better manage these stressors but also lead you to consider how supporting each other could begin to effect culture change.  

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:

• Describe how destigmatizing medico-legal events can improve physician wellness
• Cultivate compassion to better cope with the impact of patient safety incidents and medico-legal events
• Develop an initial approach to supporting a colleague in distress due to medico-legal issues