As the title suggests, for those who've been the target of a malpractice lawsuit, justified or not, how do you cope?
Without details, I feel nauseous, have lost my appetite, and I just feel physically sick. I consider myself an excellent physician, but my confidence is now seriously shaken. I feel compelled to implement a knee-jerk list of wasteful, defensive changes to my practice that won't help or add to my patient's care but might protect me from going through this again. One is made familiar with the aspects of malpractice going through medical school, but a little voice in the back of your head always tells you it won't happen to you. Until it does – even if you don't make a mistake, you can still be targeted with a suit that you're tasked to defend. Settling out results in a hit on your license, whether there was fault on your side or not.
I was dismayed further after doing a Reddit search for malpractice and coping – instead of seeing posts from the MD side, you'll see hundreds of posts of "can I sue my doctor for this XYZ that happened to me?" Point is, it's been rough and damaging to go through this – I can't ever imagine going through this twice. Part of me feels like I don't want anything to do with patient care anymore. Has anyone else experienced this?
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