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Curbside Consultation

Shame Competent Response to Medical Error

William Bynum, MD, PhD
Steven Thornton, MD
Luna Dolezal, PhD

American Family Physician. 2025;112(3):330-333.

Author disclosure: No relevant financial relationships.

WILLIAM BYNUM, MD, PhD, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina

STEVEN THORNTON, MD, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham

LUNA DOLEZAL, PhD, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom

Address correspondence to William Bynum, MD, PhD, at william.e.bynum@duke.edu.

Author disclosure: No relevant financial relationships.

  1. 1.Wu AW. Medical error: the second victim. The doctor who makes the mistake needs help too. BMJ. 2000;320(7237):726-727.
  2. 2.West CP, Huschka MM, Novotny PJ, et al. Association of perceived medical errors with resident distress and empathy: a prospective longitudinal study. JAMA. 2006;296(9):1071-1078.
  3. 3.Seys D, Wu AW, Van Gerven E, et al. Health care professionals as second victims after adverse events: a systematic review. Eval Health Prof. 2013;36(2):135-162.
  4. 4.Fatima S, Soria S, Esteban-Cruciani N. Medical errors during training: how do residents cope? A descriptive study. BMC Med Educ. 2021;21(1):408.
  5. 5.Tracy JL, Robins RW. Putting the self into self-conscious emotions: a theoretical model. Psychol Inq. 2004;15(2):103-125.
  6. 6.Dolezal LD, Bynum W. Shame competence: addressing the effects of shame in health care. Lancet. 2024;404(10462):1514-1515.
  7. 7.Bynum WE IV, Artino AR, Uijtdehaage S, et al. Sentinel emotional events: the nature, triggers, and effects of shame experiences in medical residents. Acad Med. 2019;94(1):85-93.
  8. 8.Bynum WE IV, Teunissen PW, Varpio L. In the “shadow of shame”: a phenomenological exploration of the nature of shame experiences in medical students. Acad Med. 2021;96(11S):S23-S30.
  9. 9.Nathanson DL. Shame and Pride: Affect, Sex, and the Birth of the Self Norton and Company; 1992.

Case scenarios are written to express typical situations that family physicians may encounter; authors remain anonymous. Send scenarios to afpjournal@aafp.org. Materials are edited to retain confidentiality.

This series is coordinated by Caroline Wellbery, MD, associate deputy editor.

A collection of Curbside Consultation published in AFP is available at https://www.aafp.org/afp/curbside.

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