Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Oct;29(7):2270-2277.
doi: 10.1111/jonm.13345. Epub 2021 May 9.

Peer support by interprofessional health care providers in aftermath of patient safety incidents: A cross-sectional study

Kris Vanhaecht  1   2 , Gerda Zeeman  3 , Loes Schouten  4 , Luk Bruyneel  1 , Ellen Coeckelberghs  1 , Massimiliano Panella  5 , Deborah Seys  1 ; Dutch Peer Support Collaborative Research Group
Affiliations

Peer support by interprofessional health care providers in aftermath of patient safety incidents: A cross-sectional study

Kris Vanhaecht et al. J Nurs Manag. 2021 Oct.

Abstract

Aim: To investigate the health care professionals' preferences pertaining to support in the aftermath of patient safety incidents and potential variation thereof depending on the degree of harm.

Background: Peer support systems are available to support health care professionals in the aftermath of patient safety incidents. It is unclear which type of support is best offered by whom.

Methods: A cross-sectional study in 32 Dutch hospitals.

Results: In total, 2,362 nurses and 1,404 doctors indicated they were involved in patient safety incidents at any time during their career (86%). Less than 10% of health care providers had spoken with professional support, and less than 20% admitted a need to do so. They used different support. A higher degree of harm related to higher odds of desiring support. Respondents mainly wanted to understand what happened and how it can be prevented.

Conclusion: The desired support of health care professionals in the aftermath of patient safety incidents depends on the level of harm.

Implication for nursing management: Health care professionals seem to mostly rely on persons they are close with, and they mainly desire information related to the aftermath of patient safety incidents. This should be taken into account when support programmes are set up.

Keywords: health personnel/psychology; hospitals; patient safety; peer support.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Baas, M. A. M., Scheepstra, K. W. F., Stramrood, C. A. I., Evers, R., Dijksman, L. M., & van Pampus, M. G. (2018). Work-related adverse events leaving their mark: A cross-sectional study among Dutch gynecologists. BMC Psychiatry, 18(1), 73. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1659-1
    1. Clarkson, M. D., Haskell, H., Hemmelgarn, C., & Skolnik, P. J. (2019). Abandon the term “second victim”. BMJ, 364, l1233. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l1233
    1. Coughlan, B., Powell, D., & Higgins, M. F. (2017). The second victim: A review. European Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, 213, 11-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejogrb.2017.04.002
    1. Johnson, J., Ford, E., Yu, J., Buckey, C., Fogh, S., & Evans, S. B. (2019). Peer support: A needs assessment for social support from trained peers in response to stress among medical physicists. Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics, 20(9), 157-162. https://doi.org/10.1002/acm2.12675
    1. Kable, A., Kelly, B., & Adams, J. (2018). Effects of adverse events in health care on acute care nurses in an Australian context: A qualitative study. Nursing & Health Sciences, 20(2), 238-246. https://doi.org/10.1111/nhs.12409

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources