Department Health Sciences, MSH Medical School Hamburg, 20457 Hamburg, Germany.
Wiesbaden Business School, RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, 65183 Wiesbaden, Germany.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Feb 28;20(5):4267. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20054267.
Patient care in the prehospital emergency setting is error-prone. Wu's publications on the second victim syndrome made very clear that medical errors may lead to severe emotional injury on the caregiver's part. So far, little is known about the extent of the problem within the field of prehospital emergency care. Our study aimed at identifying the prevalence of the Second Victim Phenomenon among Emergency Medical Services (EMS) physicians in Germany.
Web-based distribution of the SeViD questionnaire among n = 12.000 members of the German Prehospital Emergency Physician Association (BAND) to assess general experience, symptoms and support strategies associated with the Second Victim Phenomenon.
In total, 401 participants fully completed the survey, 69.1% were male and the majority (91.2%) were board-certified in prehospital emergency medicine. The median length of experience in this field of medicine was 11 years. Out of 401 participants, 213 (53.1%) had experienced at least one second victim incident. Self-perceived time to full recovery was up to one month according to 57.7% (123) and more than one month to 31.0% (66) of the participants. A total of 11.3% (24) had not fully recovered by the time of the survey. Overall, 12-month prevalence was 13.7% (55/401). The COVID-19 pandemic had little effect on SVP prevalence within this specific sample.
Our data indicate that the Second Victim Phenomenon is very frequent among prehospital emergency physicians in Germany. However, four out of ten caregivers affected did not seek or receive any assistance in coping with this stressful situation. One out of nine respondents had not yet fully recovered by the time of the survey. Effective support networks, e.g., easy access to psychological and legal counseling as well as the opportunity to discuss ethical issues, are urgently required in order to prevent employees from further harm, to keep healthcare professionals from leaving this field of medical care and to maintain a high level of system safety and well-being of subsequent patients.
院前急救环境中的患者护理容易出错。Wu 的关于第二受害者综合征的出版物非常清楚地表明,医疗错误可能会导致护理人员受到严重的情绪伤害。迄今为止,人们对院前急救领域这一问题的严重程度知之甚少。我们的研究旨在确定德国急诊医疗服务(EMS)医生中第二受害者现象的流行程度。
通过网络向德国院前急诊医师协会(BAND)的 12000 名成员分发 SeViD 问卷,以评估与第二受害者现象相关的一般经验、症状和支持策略。
共有 401 名参与者完整完成了调查,其中 69.1%为男性,大多数(91.2%)通过了院前急诊医学认证。他们在该医学领域的平均经验为 11 年。在 401 名参与者中,有 213 名(53.1%)至少经历过一次第二受害者事件。根据 57.7%(123 人)的参与者自我感知,完全康复需要长达一个月的时间,而 31.0%(66 人)的参与者则需要超过一个月的时间。截至调查时,共有 11.3%(24 人)未完全康复。总的来说,12 个月的患病率为 13.7%(55/401)。在这一特定样本中,COVID-19 大流行对 SVP 的流行率影响不大。
我们的数据表明,第二受害者现象在德国的院前急诊医生中非常普遍。然而,十分之四的受影响的护理人员没有寻求或获得应对这种压力情况的任何帮助。在调查时,十分之一的受访者仍未完全康复。为了防止员工受到进一步伤害,为了防止医疗保健专业人员离开这一医疗领域,并为了保持系统安全和随后患者的福祉,迫切需要建立有效的支持网络,例如,方便获得心理咨询和法律建议,以及讨论伦理问题的机会。