Second Victim Support: Does It Matter?

Abstract

Second Victims are well intentioned clinicians that are involved in clinically challenging events and are traumatized by their involvement. Almost half of all clinicians identify as a SV at some point in their career and experience SV- related psychological and psychosomatic symptoms; anxiety, depression, trouble sleeping, difficulty concentrating, flash backs, hyperarousal, and guilt. These SV-related psychological sequelae are troublesome for both the clinician and the institution as unresolved trauma can lead to burnout and turnover. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to (a) understand if the implementation of a SV Support Program affected SV-related psychological and psychosomatic symptoms; (b) understand if the participation as a SV Supporter affected overall wellbeing. A support program was modeled after University of Missouri Health Care’s ForYou team and implemented at the project site. The SVEST and Mayo Clinic Well-Being Index surveys were utilized to assess if there was a difference in SV-related symptoms and well-being before and after the 90-day implementation period. While no statistical difference was found between the two groups, similar studies have found benefit from SV Support Programs. This project did find that SV Supporters did have better overall wellbeing after the implementation period, albeit not statistically significant.