Highlights
- •Patient harm resulting from medical treatment can be traumatic for healthcare staff
- •Many surgeons reported traumatic stress of clinical concern after their most recent major complication
- •Self-distraction and being a general surgeon predicted traumatic stress of clinical concern
Abstract
Background
Patient harm resulting from medical treatment may be a traumatic experience for health
care staff. This study examined surgeons' levels of traumatic stress in the aftermath
of the most recent major complication that happened in their patients' care and its
relationship with surgeons' coping strategies, causal attributions, and perceived
institutional culture around surgical complications.
Methods
Forty-seven general and vascular surgeons from 3 National Health Service Trusts in
London, UK completed a questionnaire assessing the aforementioned variables (64.4%
response rate).
Results
One-third of the participants reported traumatic stress of clinical concern 1 month
after the incident. The use of self-distraction (P < .05) and being a general surgeon (P < .05) were predictive of traumatic stress of clinical concern in multiple logistic
regression analysis.
Conclusions
Some surgeons may experience acute traumatic stress after serious surgical complications.
The extent to which this is of clinical concern is associated with their use of self-distraction
as well as the clinical setting. Health care organizations need to attend to surgeons'
psychological needs in the aftermath of serious adverse events.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 08, 2014
Received in revised form:
June 6,
2014
Received:
April 17,
2014
Footnotes
There were no relevant financial relationships or any sources of support in the form of grants, equipment, or drugs.
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Supported by funding from the Health Foundation (P04636). The NIHR Imperial Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (P40490) is funded by the UK National Institute for Health Research.
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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- Acute traumatic stress among surgeons after major surgical complications by A. Pinto, O. Faiz, C. Bicknell, and C. VincentThe American Journal of SurgeryVol. 208Issue 4
- PreviewPinto and coauthors have completed an important study that is a first step in the process of understanding potentially destructive as well as helpful behaviors for surgeons who are seeking to deal with the emotional turmoil that follows a major surgical complication that results in significant patient harm or death of the patient. Anyone who has practiced clinical surgery knows that a major complication, particularly one that is unexpected and produces major harm, is the prototypical “gut-punch” for the responsible surgeon.
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