Framework Helps Standardize Thinking
She said having a universal framework also helps because while standards of professionalism are easier to monitor in a single medical school, when students scatter to other hospitals for clinical training, those hospitals may have different professionalism standards.
Wasserman agrees, saying, “This could be easily adopted in any environment where people deal with professionalism lapses. I don’t even think it’s necessarily relegated to trainees. It’s a great way to think about any kind of lapses, just as hospitals think about medical errors.”
He said the next step is presenting the framework at various medical schools for feedback and research to see whether the framework improves processes.
Potential criticism, he said, might come from those who say such a construct avoids punishing students who make errors.
“There will always be people who say we’re pandering to medical students whenever we worry about the learning environment,” he said. “There are old-school purists who say when people screw up you should punish them.”
But he adds healthcare broadly has moved past that thinking.
“People recognized 20 years ago or more from the standpoint of improving healthcare systems and safety that is a bad strategy. You’ll never get error-free humans working in your system, and what you have to do is consider how the system is functioning and think about ways to optimize the system so people can be their best within it.”
Wasserman and Treadway have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
This article first appeared on Medscape.com.