Shame and Medicine Project Dataset

The Shame and Medicine Project investigated the experiences of shame and self-conscious emotions within the context of contemporary healthcare. The project explored National Health Service settings and took place in England between June 2020 and February 2026. It involved patients, medical students, and doctors (including general practitioners, those working in hospital settings, and those with experience of the General Medical Council disciplinary procedures). Participants were asked to complete a number of structured Emotional Experience Diary entries detailing a time when they had experienced shame or self-consciousness in healthcare settings. Following this, participants were invited to attend a semi-structured interview to discuss the experiences described in their diary entries in greater detail. The dataset consists of the Emotional Experience Diary entries and interviews of those participants who consented to the archiving of their data. This includes 95 patients (134 diary entries and 20 semi-structured interviews), 51 doctors (312 diary entries and 41 semi-structured interviews), and 58 medical students (331 diary entries and 20 semi-structured interviews).