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Abstract
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An appeal from families and patients harmed by medical errors
The term “second victim” was introduced by Albert Wu in a BMJ editorial published in March 2000.1 His purpose was to bring attention to the need to provide emotional support for doctors who are involved in a medical error.
His effort was successful. The Web of Science reports that the article has been cited nearly 400 times. PubMed identifies over 100 articles with the term “second victim” in the title or abstract. Educational materials have been produced for doctors and nurses on the topic of second victims, and the term appears in the materials of the Joint Commission and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in the US. Support groups for second victims have been developed at numerous institutions.2
The term has been adopted, adapted, and extended by authors and educators. Articles make reference to the “second victim phenomenon” and “second victim syndrome.”3 Healthcare organisations have now been termed the “third victim”45—creating the “triangle of victimhood.”6
But the true pervasiveness of the term second victim becomes apparent only in web searches. Type “victim of medical error” into the Google search engine and most of the results are information about the second victim. A Google image search brings up stock images of distraught looking people wearing scrubs or white coats.
We ask the healthcare community to pause and reflect on the term second victim. Opinion is growing that it is inappropriate, including among patients and healthcare professionals. A study of physicians shows that many are uncomfortable with this term,7 and even Wu has recently acknowledged concerns about its use.8
Patient communities and their advocates do not question the need to support healthcare professionals who have been involved in an incident of patient harm—programmes providing care for the care giver, such as those implemented in the Communication and Optimal Resolution (CANDOR) initiative in the US,910 are crucial for a functional and safe healthcare system. But they do question why victim has become so embedded in the vernacular of patient safety ...
Language: en |