Medical error, incident investigation and the second victim: doing better but feeling worse?

Emotion and Coping in the Aftermath of Medical Error

“…To our knowledge, 14 this is the first survey to assess the impact of making a medical error in both the UK and US and suggests that experiences are common across these two countries. This is significant because many in the US assume that the fear of litigation is the principle driving force behind negative emotions after an error.…”

“…[12,13] The continuing demand for clinician support strategies has been highlighted recently, but the development of support mechanisms is limited by a lack of knowledge about what type of support may be helpful in the emotional recovery from error, the factors that influence coping, and whether a one size fits all approach is appropriate. [14] There is also an absence of cross-country research around this issue; much of the current work stems from the US and current literature indicates that there is been greater advancement in clinician support pathways in the US for affected clinicians than in the UK. [15] Health care systems in the UK 4 and US differ; for example, physicians may be much more exposed to malpractice claims in the US which intensifies bad feeling after an error in comparison to the suits pursued at an organisational level in the UK.…”

Increased Risk of Burnout for Physicians and Nurses Involved in a Patient Safety Incident

“…In addition, Critical Incident Stress Management and psychological debriefing in the aftermath of a PSI, as well as implementing and maintaining organizational support systems, may help second victims to cope effectively. 10,20,44 A "no blame, no shame" culture and recognizing the role of system errors may help second victims and prevent future errors. 45 However, further research on the effectiveness of such practices is needed.…”

Nurses' experiences with errors in nursing

“…In 2000, A. Wu introduced the idea of physicians becoming "second victims" (Wu, 2000, p. 726) following a medical error and continues to study the effects of errors on healthcare professionals (Wu & Steckelberg, 2012). This concept has subsequently been translated to nursing practice (Jones, & Treiber, 2012;Scott et al, 2009).…”