Second Victims in Nursing: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Background: Second victim describes the impact on healthcare professionals after an error causing patient harm. However, to date, the impact on nurses is unclear.Purpose: To describe and understand what is known about nurses and nursing students as second victims.

Methods: A scoping review was complete using three databases: CINAHL, Medline,and Proquest for the period between Jan2010–Jan2022.  A total of 23papers were included. CASP checklists for evaluating research was used for appraisal.

Findings: Three key themes were identified which explained nurses’ experiences of various emotions including significant psychological distress, symptomology, grief andCoping - response/reactions to errors after they have inadvertently made an error. Nurses sought peer, supervisor and organisational support; however, these were not always offered leading to turnover intentions, absenteeism, and perceptions of poor safety culture.

Discussion: Effective nurse workforce support is important, given the exhausted workforce due to COVID-19 and a stretched healthcare system with constrained resources.

Note:

Funding Information: None.

Declaration of Interests: None.

Keywords: coping, error, nurse, patient safety, second victim, support