einstein (São Paulo). 08/May/2020;18:eED5619.
Second victim: after all, what is this?
DOI: 10.31744/einstein_journal/2020ED5619
Healthcare professionals practice their activities daily with dedication and informed by science, and face several situations of excessively complex care. Nobel, courageous, and full of compassion, they increasingly want to save more lives, be useful; with the objective of achieving better results in care, they bravely face long working hours with no sleep, and are known as professionals that dedicate themselves constantly in work as in studies. Additionally, they have a method of working that requires physical disposition and agility in order to evaluate, diagnose, and care for their patients. Watching over the lives of others is the task of healthcare professionals.(,)
One of the major objectives of all professionals is to avoid complications, focused on safety of patients and quality of care. Nevertheless, adverse events are a reality and likely with always be a part of the system, due to the universal nature of human fallibility and the complexity in which care is inserted. Adverse events can cause severe damage to the patient or death; thus, the patient is the “first victim” of these events. However, the victims of adverse events go way beyond a given individual. When they occur, there is an indirect effect on healthcare professionals, who are considered the “second victims”.()
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