Soignant « seconde victime » : comment accompagner un professionnel à la suite d'un accident ou d'une erreur en anesthésie-réanimation ?

Health care practitioners involved in a serious adverse event (SAE), whether it being a medical error or not, may experience genuine psychological trauma. Practitioners in such situation should be assessed as genuine second injured person. Psychological trauma in practitioners may lead to various disorders such as drug addiction, alcohol abuse, mental disorders, posttraumatic stress disorders or suicide attempt. These situations carry a high risk for patient's further safety and quality of care. Recommendations in preventing psychological trauma in health care practitioners following SAE have been issued including immediate, short-term and long-term help from co-workers, supervisors and individual psychological support. A wider publicity on SAE-related psychological trauma amongst health care practitioners is warranted in order to raise awareness on this matter.