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

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.