Program Details
Presenter: Gita Pensa, M.D., FAAEM
Provides 1.00 hour of CE/CME credit (Presented on October 15, 2025; Reviewed March 1, 2026; Expires March 16, 2029)
Online CME credit fee: $50.00
Doctors and Litigation
Overview
Many doctors are completely unprepared for malpractice litigation, even though the majority will experience it during their careers. The experience is shrouded in secrecy and shame, and the individual physician often suffers in isolation, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Gita Pensa, M.D., will discuss the complexities of litigation stress in doctors, its impact beyond legal outcomes, and how education and more effective support strategies for defendants can mitigate its impact.
Gita Pensa, M.D., will discuss the complexities of litigation stress in doctors, its impact beyond legal outcomes, and how education and more effective support strategies for defendants can mitigate its impact.
Learning Objectives
Following participation in this course, participants should be able to:
- Identify the origins of litigation stress in the physician defendant.
- Recognize the ways in which litigation stress and fear of litigation drive career abandonment, burnout and suicide in physicians.
- Analyze how addressing litigation stress through peer support, coaching, and education enhances physician well-being and promotes ethical patient care.
Program Faculty
Gita Pensa, M.D., FAAEM, an emergency physician practicing in Rhode Island since 2001. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (now Perelman School of Medicine) in 1997. She continued on to residency at the combined George Washington/ Georgetown Emergency Medicine Residency in Washington, D.C., graduating as Chief Resident in 2001. She worked in community emergency medicine for thirteen years before joining the faculty at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine of Brown University in 2014. She is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine.
Program Inquires
For questions or inquiries regarding this program series, please contact cme@med.unr.edu.
Continuing Medical Education Credit, Disclosures, and Sources
Instructions for receiving CME/CE credit:
- Click on the registration button above
- Click on the course to register
- Pay for the course
- After payment, you will click begin the activity
- YouTube will be embedded into the website
- Watch the YouTube video
- Click to claim credit
- Enter the activity code that was provided to you in the email confirmation
- Claim credit and generate the certificate
Evaluation and Claim Credit
- Once you begin the video, you must watch it in its entirety to claim credit. Fast-forwarding has been disabled. You may pause the video briefly if needed. Do not close the browser window as doing so will require you to start over.
- Once you have reached the end of the video, a button to continue will appear that will take to evaluation and start the process for receiving a certificate.
- Failure to complete the process will result in the credit not being awarded to you.
- Should you need to restart the process, or download a copy of a certificate at a later time, please see the instructions for accessing the online portal here: Evaluation and Claim Credit
For questions concerning the online evaluation or your certificate, please contact our office at (775) 784-4791 or email us at cme@med.unr.edu.
CME Accreditation and Designation
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine and Down Syndrome Network of Northern Nevada (DSNNN). The University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education to physicians.
The University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Continuing Medical Education Credit
The University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine approves this program for 1.00 hours of nursing continuing education credit. Nevada State Board of Nursing provider number 120894-1.
This program provides 1 CME credit towards the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners' requirement for 2 hours of training related to ethics, pain management, or addiction care during each licensure period.
As an accredited provider of continuing medical education through the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine must ensure balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor in all its educational activities. In order to assure that information is presented in a scientific and objective manner, The University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine requires that anyone in a position to control or influence the content of an accredited activity disclose all financial relationships within the prior 24 months with any commercial or proprietary entity producing health care goods or services relevant to the content being planned or presented. All relevant financial relationships have been mitigated. Following are those disclosures.
The following planner/presenter has disclosed the following relationship with an ineligible entity.
• Colleen Camenisch - Ownership Interest: equilibrium-MBSR, LLC, Mindfulness Standard, LLC