Emotional harm from disrespect

Emotional harm from disrespect: the neglected preventable harm discusses a different form of harm in health care.  The authors of this paper in BMJ Quality & Safety explain that emotional harms can be understood as harms to a patient's dignity, often caused by a lack of respect.  These type of harms erode trust and damage patient-provider relationships. They also effect patients' physical health. 

The authors conclude that there needs to be a systematic approach to recording and categorising emotional harms so that we can understand how and why they occur and how we can prevent them from happening.  "Ensuring that our profession does not cause preventable harm to our patients requires that we address emotional harms with the same rigor we have applied to physical harms".

Sokol-Hessner L, Folcarelli PH, Sands KEF.  BMJ Quality & Safety. June 17, 2015.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2015-004034