Critical incidents and medical mistakes have serious psychological and health related impact on patients and their families. This is for sure. However, a recently published review of the impact of critical incidents provides interesting insights on how such incidents can also impact on healthcare professionals [Best Practice & Research Clinical Anaesthesiology 25 (2011) 169–179]. The second victim label refers to the way that healthcare professionals can be adversely affected by critical incidents.
The paper reviews lots of interesting work and provides useful directions for future research and interventions. For me, three points from the review stood out;
1. Some health-care providers report symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, such as sleep disturbance, nightmares, irritability and problems concentrating that may even lead to inability to work. However, even without these symptoms (especially) physicians frequently suffer from feelings of incompetence, anxiety about future errors and professional isolation, all of which were associated with higher job-related stress making it harder to continue working clinically
2. Long term impacts included increased burnout, symptoms of depression and reduced quality of life
3. A major motivation for taking legal action is the lack of reliable information and a perceived lack of respect and feelings of abandonment.
So, some healthcare professionals can suffer just as much as patients from critical incidents, they may (understandably) fail to perform adequately in terms of disclosure, and not surprisingly some patients want to take legal action.
