Second victims and mindfulness: A systematic review

Abstract

Second victims are healthcare professionals who have been involved in an unanticipated clinical event or medical error and are negatively impacted on professional and/or personal levels. One of the most prevalent symptoms second victims endure is stress, which correlates with burnout and powerlessness. These symptoms may deeply impact second victims on professional and personal levels, but can also influence healthcare organizations. Distracted and stressed clinicians can possibly create a medical error and are at an increased risk to leave their chosen profession or institution. The purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate the literature pertaining to the second victim phenomenon and the effect of mindfulness-based interventions on perceived symptoms. PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and Google Scholar were used to conduct this literature search. There were 23,294 articles for consideration, after the original search. The review identified n = 15 publications as meeting inclusion requirements. These studies indicated that mindfulness-based interventions positively impact stress, burnout, and self-compassion. Future research is needed to establish mindfulness-based interventions effectiveness on second victims.