Acceptance Declaration
Accept
Additional Information
I declare I have no actual or potential conflict of interest in relation to this program.
Accepted Type
Oral
Category
General Call (Workshop, Oral Presentation, Poster Presentation)
Type
Oral
Sub Type
Education Research
Considered for Poster
yes
Title
The civil legal experience of Canadian trainees
Background/Purpose
The Canadian Medical Protective Association's (CMPA) mission is to protect the professional integrity of physicians and promote safe medical care in Canada. While some published research exists on the medico-legal risk of postgraduate medical trainees in other countries, there is little data on the Canadian experience.
Methods
We conducted a mixed-methods analysis of closed civil-legal cases involving trainees from 2008-2017. We applied descriptive statistics to key demographics and trends, and content analysis, informed by grounded theory, for case-level contributing factors. Notably, the CMPA membership does not include most of Quebec trainees.
Results
In 2017, trainees comprised 13% of CMPA membership (n=97,000). Between 2008-2017, cases involving trainees represented 11% of all CMPA legal actions. Of the 320 trainees named in a civil legal complaint, surgical specialties were most frequent (42%), followed by medical specialties (36%), obstetrics and gynecology (12%), and family medicine (6%). A majority of complaints involved hospital-based care (96%). Over half (58%) of civil legal cases lasted 3 or more years to resolution. Trainees were on-service 84% of the time during an alleged incident, and 50% were on-call. In 119 cases where residents were found accountable, 50% were allegations of diagnostic error.
Conclusion
This study provides insight into the medico-legal experience of trainee physicians. Medical educators can use these data to inform their teaching priorities, and tailor their learning plans to enable trainees to develop strategies to mitigate common medico-legal risks, and improve patient safety.
Keyword 1
trainees
Keyword 2
medico-legal
Keyword 3
mixed-methods
Level of Training
Post Graduate
Abstract Themes
Postgraduate
Additional Theme (First choice)
Postgraduate
Authors
Term 1
Yes
Term 2
Yes
Term 3
Yes
Term 4
Yes
Term 5
Yes
