When Doctors Make Fatal Mistakes

In medical ethics the first guiding principle for doctors and nurses is do no harm, but accidental harm happens all the time. Medical errors occur every day, and sometimes those errors are deadly. Of course that’s devastating to the patient and the patient’s loved ones. But it’s also devastating to the doctor or nurse who made the mistake, and often those health care workers suffer in silence. How should hospital administrators respond when health care providers make terrible medical mistakes? Should they punish them or support them and learn from them?