Experience and support of Chinese healthcare professionals as second victims of patient safety incidents: A cross‐sectional study

Abstract

Purpose To describe the experience and support of Chinese healthcare professionals as second victims of PSIs. Design and Methods A cross‐sectional study with anonymous online self‐report questionnaires was adopted. A total of 1357 Chinese healthcare professionals participated in this study. The Chinese version of the Second Victim Experience and Support Tool (C‐SVEST) was used to evaluate the experience of second victims and the quality of support resources. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyze the data. Findings This study showed that 350 participants (25.8%) had been involved in PSIs during their careers. The majority of respondents who had experienced PSIs agreed they suffered more from psychological distress, followed by professional self‐efficacy distress, and physical distress. Besides, they regarded colleague support and management support as the most desirable support. Statistically significant differences were reported in some items. First, compared with medical staff without professional titles, staff with professional titles suffered more from psychological distress but gained more support from colleagues. Practice implications The second victim phenomenon deserves further attention. The programs focusing on training qualified colleagues to provide emotional support should be developed, implemented, and evaluated. Moreover, it is necessary to build a better patient safety culture with nonpunitive responses and encourage the disclosure and reporting of PSIs.

Second‐victim experience and support among nurses in mainland China

“…In our study, the prevalence of adverse events was approximately 45.26%, and previous surveys showed that the rate was 25.8%-45.3% in China (Yan et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2019). As this study confirms, second victims who experience adverse events also encounter various degrees of negative physical, psychological and occupational impacts, which corresponds with previous studies (Busch et al, 2019;Stovall et al, 2020) 3.…”

Second victim experience and support desire among nurses working at regional levels in China

“…The literature on second victim syndrome has mostly emphasized/ related symptom severity among nurses working in secondary/tertiary institutions (Yan et al, 2021); conversely, we focused on nurses working in regional hospitals, analysing the degree of the second victim syndrome and their desired forms of support.…”

Validation and Psychometric Properties of the Spanish Version of the Second Victim Experience and Support Tool Questionnaire

“…Most of the studies where the results of adverse events have been addressed have traditionally been based on detecting and evaluating psychological effects (presence of anxiety, depression, stress, burnout, or especially post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]) 8,9,[39][40][41] . While these psychological problems are closely related to the phenomenon of second victims, they are not exclusive to it.…”

“…[35][36][37][38][39] Most of the studies where the results of adverse events have been addressed have traditionally been based on detecting and evaluating psychological effects (presence of anxiety, depression, stress, burnout, or especially posttraumatic stress disorder). 8,9,[40][41][42] Although these psychological problems are closely related to the phenomenon of second victims, they are not exclusive to it. In our opinion, one of the strengths of the SVEST questionnaire is that it includes other important aspects related to the issue of second victims, such as professional self-efficacy, absenteeism, or intention to leave the profession.…”