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5 - Consequences for the Practitioner

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 April 2021

Alan Merry  and
Joyce Wahr
Alan Merry
Affiliation:
University of Auckland
Joyce Wahr
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
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Summary

Some adverse medication events will occur, including some that were preventable. These events may have serious consequences for the practitioners and it seems sensible to provide support for these clinicians. The term “second victim” has been used, but its use tends to absolve the clinician of any responsibility and equates the suffering of the clinician who erred with the suffering of the patient and their loved ones. An appropriate response to avoidable harm should include emotional support for the clinician. While some programs exist, very few institutions currently provide this type of support. An institutional willingness to relieve staff from clinical duties when the emotional response to an adverse event might create an ongoing risk to patients is also important. Support needs to be offered within a just culture whose ultimate goal is to improve patient safety: practitioners should be expected to engage actively. There is potential restorative and therapeutic value of learning from adverse events and continuously improving medication safety. It may be that we do need some resilience to the “heat of the kitchen”, but it is also important to keep that heat as low as possible. Reducing the likelihood of harm to patients is the best support that can be provided.

Keywords

Second victimpost traumatic stress disorderclinician suicideemotional supportcompassionrestorative supportreflections
Type
Chapter
Information
Medication Safety during Anesthesia and the Perioperative Period , pp. 68 - 86
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Consequences for the Practitioner
  • Alan Merry, University of Auckland, Joyce Wahr, University of Minnesota
  • Book: Medication Safety during Anesthesia and the Perioperative Period
  • Online publication: 09 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108151702.005
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Consequences for the Practitioner
  • Alan Merry, University of Auckland, Joyce Wahr, University of Minnesota
  • Book: Medication Safety during Anesthesia and the Perioperative Period
  • Online publication: 09 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108151702.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Consequences for the Practitioner
  • Alan Merry, University of Auckland, Joyce Wahr, University of Minnesota
  • Book: Medication Safety during Anesthesia and the Perioperative Period
  • Online publication: 09 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108151702.005
Available formats
×