123 - First Line Help for Second Victims

Description: Description of team:
- Deb Sonnenberg (Professional Practice Nurse Lead, P&E)
- Katey Nguyen (Professional Development Specialist—RN, P&E)
- Jenny Lindner (Professional Practice Nurse Lead, P&E)
- Julie Lyke (Professional Practice Nurse Lead, P&E)
- Molly Beckstrom (Lead Provider Resilience Program Counselor, EAP)
- Jennifer Encinger (Employee Assistance Program Director, EAP)
Preparation and planning:
- Initial work to get the correct stakeholders involved (Employee Assistance Program [EAP], unit leaders) to assess the current process for staff support following adverse patient events. We also surveyed staff to assess staff awareness of available resources, if support was offered following adverse patient events, and comfortability with recognizing signs and symptoms of second victims.
- All stakeholders are highly invested in this work, recognizing the gap and feel it is the right work.

Assessment:
- Second victims are defined as health care personnel who experience psychological or physical symptoms after direct or indirect involvement in an unintentional adverse patient event
- EAP is a voluntary program and typically employee initiated
- A survey was created to collect data and analyze and measure improvement in utilization of EAP for staff following patient related adverse events. We had 63 respondents to the survey, 35 (56%) of the respondents had been involved in a situation with a negative outcome for a patient. Of the 35 who had been involved in such a situation, 20 respondents were not offered support following the event. The offered support ranged from EAP to peer support, to "other" category.
- Leaders feel work-related consequences (inability to pay attention, fear of coming to work, absenteeism, leaving the facility, leaving healthcare, etc.)
Implementation:
- A new standardized process was developed. When a periop leader becomes aware that an employee was involved in an adverse event, they will initiate a standardized process. This involves sending a standardized email including Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and the identified employee, containing resources for support and easy access to schedule with EAP. While the email will be sent to staff identified in an adverse patient event, further action, such as setting up time with EAP, is voluntary and confidential.
- Practice & Education (P&E) created one-page SBAR/training for leaders with project information, initial email scripting and resources, and brief education for second victims education
- A post-implementation survey will be created and data will be collected three months after the process is initiated to analyze and measure improvement in staff awareness of support available, self-reported utilization of EAP for patient event, increased support and caring felt following an adverse event, and comfortability seeking support after an adverse event.
Outcome:
- The outcome will produce:
-- Anticipated post-initiation survey data shows an increase in self-reported utilization of EAP follow-up survey, increased satisfaction with resources offered, increased awareness of resources available.
-- Further outcomes will be analyzed upon completion of data collection
Implications for perioperative nursing:
- Increased staff awareness and utilization of EAP resources for second victims
- Improved satisfaction with support following adverse events
- Enhanced leader engagement in supporting second victims
- Shift from opt-in to opt-out model for initial outreach