Health care workers as second victims of medical errors

Abstract

IntroductIon "Second victims" are health care providers who are involved with patient adverse events and who subsequently have difficulty coping with their emotions. Growing attention is being paid to making system improvements to create safer health care and to the appropriate handling of patients and families harmed during the provision of medical care. In contrast, there has been little attention to helping health care workers cope with adverse events. objEctIvEs The aim of the study was to emphasize the importance of support structures for second victims in the handling of patient adverse events and in building a culture of safety within hospitals. MEthods A survey was administered to health care workers who participated in a patient safety meeting. The total number of registered participants was 350 individuals from various professions and different institutions within Johns Hopkins Medicine. The first part of the survey was paper-based and the second was administered online. rEsuLts The survey results reflected a need in "second victim" support strategies within health care organizations. Overall, informal emotional support and peer support were among the most requested and most useful strategies. concLusIons When there is a serious patient adverse event, there are always second victims who are health care workers. The Johns Hopkins Hospital has established a "Second Victims" Work Group that will develop support strategies, particularly a peer-support program, for health care professionals within the system.

Psychological responses, coping and supporting needs of healthcare professionals as second victims

“…Second victims are identified as healthcare professionals who are traumatized by an unanticipated adverse event, medical error or patient-related injury (Scott et al, 2010). This concept was first introduced by Wu (2000) to describe the impact of mistakes on healthcare professionals and have been subsequently adopted in recent studies on the distress experienced by healthcare providers after an AE (Edrees et al 2011;Joesten et al 2015;Ullstr€ om et al 2014). Second victims in this review include healthcare professionals from nursing, medicine and allied health departments but exclude students.…”

“…Second victims in this review include healthcare professionals from nursing, medicine and allied health departments but exclude students. It was reported that nearly half of healthcare professionals have suffered the second victim phenomena throughout their careers (Edrees et al 2011).…”

The emotional impact of errors or adverse events on healthcare providers in the NICU: The protective role of coworker support

“…no experience, observation or personal involvement) is associated with emotional distress and decreased professional quality of life. Although we know that healthcare providers desire coworker support and find it helpful when coping with an error or adverse event (Christensen et al, 1992;Edrees, Paine, Feroli, & Wu, 2011;Engel et al, 2006), this is the first study to examine whether coworker support moderated the impact of an error or adverse event on these outcomes. Overall, we found that a significant number of healthcare providers reported observing or being involved in an adverse patient event during the preceding 12 months.…”

Exploring the experience of nurse practitioners who have committed medical errors

“…As many as half of all healthcare providers will experience "second victim" phenomena during their professional lives (Edrees, Paine, Feroli, & Wu, 2011). Yet, there is a paucity of studies that investigate the NP experience.…”