Talking with the patient

How to disclose a medical error

Other platforms explain it with text and video. In VMS you practice it on the patient.

MD / DOPANursing (NCLEX)EMS (NREMT)
Practice it in VR with Blocky

Patients expect to be told when something goes wrong in their care. Honest, prompt disclosure builds trust and improves safety.

Step by step

  1. Care for the patient first

    Treat any harm and make the patient safe. [1]

  2. Prepare with the team

    Gather the facts, decide who will speak and involve risk management per policy. [2]

  3. Meet promptly in private

    Talk to the patient and family soon, in a quiet place, sitting down. [2]

  4. Explain what happened

    Use plain words. Share the facts known now, without blame or guessing. [3]

  5. Apologize

    Say you are sorry this happened. Sincere regret matters to patients. [2]

  6. Explain next steps

    Say what is being done for the patient and to prevent it from happening again. [2]

  7. Report and document

    File an incident report and document the disclosure conversation. [1]

Common errors

Practice it in VMS

In VMS you do this on the patient, not on paper: every step goes on the checklist with a score, and in Teach mode Blocky tells you what comes next.

Sources

  1. The Joint Commission, National Patient Safety Goals
  2. AAMC Core Entrustable Professional Activities (Core EPAs)
  3. AHRQ Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit (Teach-Back)

Facts and steps follow AAMC Core Entrustable Professional Activities (Core EPAs); AHRQ Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit (Teach-Back). VMS is not affiliated with these organizations. Updated: 2026-10-11.