Medical harm, patient safety, and the culture(s) of forgiveness

Hastings Center Report

Volumn 33, Issue 6, 2003, Pages 28-36

  Berlinger, Nancy ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY; DISPLACEMENT BEHAVIOR; DOCTOR PATIENT RELATION; ETHICS; GUILT; HEALTH CARE AND PUBLIC HEALTH; HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT; HUMAN; INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION; MEDICAL ERROR; ORGANIZATION; PROFESSIONAL PATIENT RELATIONSHIP; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; RELIGION; RELIGIOUS APPROACH; SAFETY; SOCIOLOGY;

HEALTH CARE AND PUBLIC HEALTH; PROFESSIONAL PATIENT RELATIONSHIP; RELIGIOUS APPROACH;

CHRISTIANITY; CULTURE; GUILT; HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION; HOSPITAL-PATIENT RELATIONS; HUMANS; JUDAISM; MEDICAL ERRORS; ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE; PHYSICIAN-PATIENT RELATIONS; RELIGION AND MEDICINE; SAFETY; SCAPEGOATING; SOCIOLOGY, MEDICAL; TRUTH DISCLOSURE; WESTERN WORLD;

EID: 2942642801     PISSN: 00930334     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3527823     Document Type: Review

References (44)

1. L.T. Kohn, J. Corrigan, and M.S. Donaldson, eds., To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2000).
2. D.S. Davis, "It Ain't Necessarily So: Clinicians, Bioethics, and Religious Studies," in Notes from a Narrow Ridge: Religion and Bioethics, ed. D.S. Davis and L. Zoloth (Hagerstown, Maryland: University Publishing Group, 1999), 10, 12-17.
3. "Revisions to Joint Commission Standards in Support of Patient Safety and Medical/Health Care Error Reduction," RI. 1.2.2. Available at: www.jcaho.org/stan-dard/fr-ptsafety.html. Accessed 30 January 2002.
4. The eschatological dimension of kairos is discussed in P. Cooper-White, The Cry of Tamar: Violence Against Women and the Church's Response (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995), 262.
5. These conversations, with visiting international scholars at The Hastings Center, focused on Hindu and Buddhist traditions in particular.
6. A. Kleinman, Writing at the Margin: Discourse between Anthropology and Medicine (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 13.
7. The "one in five" statistic was cited by Bryan Liang, Professor of Law and Medicine, Southern Illinois School of Law, at the July 2001 meeting of the Promoting Patient Safety project at The Hastings Center. The "one in four" statistic comes from the website of the 2000 U.S. Census. Available at: http://factfinder.census.gov. Accessed 18 November 2002.
8. R.J.Z. Werblowsky and G. Wigoder, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), s.v. "sin"; D.N. Freed-man, ed. The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Volume 6 (New York: Doubleday, 1992), s.v. "sin, sinners."
9. R.J.Z. Werblowsky and G. Wigoder, s.v. "sin"; D.N. Freedman, s.v. "sin, sinners."
10. R.J.Z. Werblowsky and G. Wigoder, s.v. "atonement."
11. R.J.Z. Werblowsky and G. Wigoder, s.v. "atonement." Kapparah and Kippur share the same root.
12. R.J.Z. Werblowsky and G. Wigoder, s.v. "tiqqun 'olam." I am grateful to Charles L. Bosk for drawing my attention to the recovered tradition of tikkun olam with respect to the observance of Yom Kippur in particular.
13. D. Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, ed. G. Kelly and J. Godsey, trans. B. Green and R. Krauss (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, [1937] 2001), 43.
14. Ibid., 43.
15. M. Luther, "Against Latomus, "in Works, Vol. 32. trans. George Lindbeck (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1958); 223-29.
16. Anthologized in P. C. Hodgson and R.H. King, ed., Readings in Christian Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985); 180-85, at 185.
17. Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, 43.
18. R Cooper-White, 253, 255.
19. D. Bonhoeffer, Ethics, trans. N.H. Smith (New York: Simon & Schuster, [1949] 1995), 87.
20. In addition to sponsoring A Campaign for Forgiveness Research, the Temple-ton Foundation's Program to Encourage the Scientific Study of Forgiveness has commissioned an annotated bibliography of social science research on forgiveness, which is available on the foundation's website (http://www. templeton.org), and has published several collections of essays. The website of A Campaign for Forgiveness Re-search, includes descriptions of the 29 projects fully or partially funded as of 1999. Available at: http://forgiving.org. Websites accessed 8 December 2001.
21. See http://www.ukans.edu/-forgive/.Website accessed 8 December 2001.
22. See http://www.stanford.edu/-alex-sox/forgiveness-article.htm. Website accessed 8 December 2001.
23. Clinical studies of forgiveness include S.R. Freedman and R.D. Enright, "Forgiveness as an Intervention Goal with Incest Survivors," Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 64, no. 5 (1996): 983-92, and D. Kaminer, D. J. Stein, I. Mbanga, and N. Zungu-Dirwayi, "The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa: Relation to Psychiatric Status and Forgiveness Among Survivors of Human Rights Abuses," British Journal of Psychiatry 178 (2001): 373-77. Enright is also the founder and director of the International Forgiveness Institute (http://www.forgiveness-institute. otg). Website accessed 12 December 2001.
24. C.L. Bosk, Forgive and Remember: Managing Medical Failure (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1979).
25. Ibid., 178.
26. Ibid., 178-79.
27. See C.L. Bosk, 127-46, for additional description and analysis of this ritual.
28. Ibid., 178.
29. EL. Cross, ed., The New Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), s.v. "hair-shirt. "
30. M.J. Hatchett, Commentary on the American Prayer Book (New York: Seabury Press, 1980), 449-50.
31. For a discussion of Austin's taxonomy, see R.L. Grimes, "Ritual Criticism and Infelicitous Performances," in Readings in Ritual Studies, ed. R.L. Grimes (Upper Saddle River, N. J.: Prentice Hall, 1996), 279-92, at 285, 288.
32. I am grateful to the anonymous te- viewer of this article for this observation.
33. Albert Dreisbach, Department of Internal Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, L. A., personal communication.
34. Lyla Correoso, attending physician, Calvaty Hospital, Bronx, N.Y., personal communication; staff chaplain, personal communication.
35. A. Dreisbach, personal communication.
36. A. Dreisbach, personal communication.
37. L. Correoso, personal communication; student chaplain, personal communication.
38. L. Correoso, personal communication; student chaplain, personal communication.
39. A. Dreisbach, personal communication; Curtis Hart, Director of Pastoral Care, New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Lecturer, Division of Medical Ethics, Weill-Cornell Medical College, New York, N.Y., personal communication.
40. C. Hart, personal communication.
41. Student chaplain, personal communication.
42. Staff chaplain, petsonal communication.
43. S.S. Kraman and g. Hamm, "Risk Management: Extreme Honesty May Be The Best Policy," Annals of Internal Medicine 131(1999): 963-67, at 964.
44. D. Bonhoeffer, "After Ten Years," in Letters and Papers from Prison, ed. E. Bethge, tr. R. Fuller, F. Clark, and J. Bowden (New York: Simon & Schuster; [1951] 1997), 17.