Abstract
Aim
To investigate the current status of experience and support of nurses as second victims and explore its related factors in nurses.
Design
A sequential, explanatory, mixed-method study was applied.
Methods
A total of 406 nurses from seven tertiary hospitals in China were chosen as participants between September to October 2023. The Chinese version of the Second Victim Experience and Support Questionnaire (SVEST), Somatic Complaints of Sub-health Status Questionnaire (SCSSQ) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) were applied to collect quantitative data. Eight nurses were selected for a qualitative study through in-depth interviews. Through interpretive phenomenological analysis, the interview data were analysed to explore the experience and support of nurses as second victims.
Results
Practice distress (15.74 ± 4.97) and psychological distress (15.48 ± 3.74) were the highest dimensions, indicating Chinese nurses experienced second victim-related practice and psychological distress. Nurses with different gender, age, education, marital status, income, working hours, professional titles, and unit types have different levels of second victim-related experience and support (p < 0.05). In addition, the score of SVEST was positively associated with SCSSQ (r = 0.444) and GAD-7 (r = 0.490) (p < 0.05). This qualitative study found that the experience and support of nurses as second victims included nurses’ perceptions and needs for patient safety events; psychological, physical and practice distress of nurses; and nurses and hospitals coping style after patient safety events.
Discussion
Our findings suggest that nurses who are second victims of patient safety events experience severe practice and psychological distress, indicating that nursing managers should pay attention to psychological and practice distress of nurses after patient safety events and provide effective preventive measures.
Data Sharing Statement
All data are available in the manuscript.
Ethics Approval
This study was reviewed and approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University (2023-E654-01). This study adheres to the provisions and ethical principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.
Patient Consent for Publication
All subjects engaged in the study provided informed consent, including anonymized responses.
Acknowledgments
We are special grateful to all researchers who participated in this study during the study period.
Disclosure
The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.