The Second Victim: a Review.

Area of Science:

• Medical error and patient safety
• Healthcare professional well-being
• Maternity care outcomes

Background:

• Public perception often idealizes maternity care as always physiological, with zero morbidity or mortality.
• Healthcare professionals recognize maternity care as an imperfect practice where adverse events and errors can occur.
• Errors in healthcare create a domino effect impacting patients (first victims), staff (second victims), and organizations (third victims).

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the phenomenon of the "second victim" in general medical care, with a specific focus on maternity care.
• To identify risk factors, prevalence, and effects of second victims in maternity settings.
• To discuss strategies for supporting healthcare staff, including resilience, disclosure, and learning from excellence.

Main Methods:

• A thorough literature search was conducted on the topic of second victims in medical and maternity care.
• The review focused on recent research concerning the impact of adverse outcomes on maternity staff.
• Key issues such as resilience, disclosure, support systems, and Learning from Excellence were examined.

Main Results:

• The phenomenon of the second victim is increasingly recognized and researched, particularly in high-expectation fields like maternity care.
• Adverse outcomes significantly affect healthcare staff, leading to potential isolation and distress.
• Supporting staff disclosure of errors is crucial in mitigating the traumatic impact of the domino effect.

Conclusions:

• A supportive culture of disclosure is an ethical responsibility in healthcare to aid all victims of error.
• Providing support systems for healthcare professionals involved in adverse events is essential.
• Fostering a culture that learns from both excellence and errors can create a more balanced and resilient healthcare environment.