Supporting Nurses Who Experience Second-Victim Phenomenon (Podcast)

Following an adverse or unanticipated clinical event, nurses and other caregivers may experience distress known as the second-victim phenomenon. Some have trouble sleeping, eating, concentrating or finding joy in their favorite activities.

“When I talk to nurses about second victim phenomenon, a lot of them pull me aside afterward and say, ‘I’ve experienced this.’ Three in four nurses have. They just didn’t know it had a name,” says Dianna Copley, DNP, APRN-CNS, ACCNS-AG, CCRN, Clinical Nurse Specialist at Cleveland Clinic and Associate Director of the Nursing Ethics Program.

In this episode of Cleveland Clinic’s Nurse Essentials podcast, Copley discusses second victim phenomenon and Emerge Stronger, a peer support program the healthcare system launched in 2020 to address it. She shares insight on:

• What second victim phenomenon is and the emotional toll it can take on healthcare workers
• How the Emerge Stronger program works
• Training and education for peer supporters
• Advice for caregivers who have experienced second victim phenomenon
• Guidance for nurses who want to start a peer support initiative at their hospitals

Click the podcast player above to listen to the episode now, or read on for a short, edited excerpt. Check out more Nurse Essentials episodes at my.clevelandclinic.org/podcasts/nurse-essentials or wherever you get your podcasts.

Podcast excerpt

Podcast host Carol Pehotsky, DNP, RN, NEA-BC: So, somebody's really inspired by our discussion today and they'd like to start something in their own hospital, in their own health system. What are some of the first things they should do?

Copley: Find a team who is passionate about this topic who will come along beside you. We had a very slow roll out initially. We actually started at a couple hospitals because our big goal was that whenever somebody reached out to have peer support, we could say, "We have a peer supporter for you."

One of the things we recognize is that sometimes peer supporters are busy. Peer supporters might have things going on in their own life. And so, we wanted to be able to create a space for our peer supporters that if we reached out and said, "We have somebody to connect you to," they could also say, "I'm busy right now" or "I have a lot going on in my own life." So, we wanted to have a pool of people really trained and ready before we launched this system wide. So first, find your team.

Second, find people who are passionate about supporting other caregivers and start training. There are some fantastic examples in literature of different training programs. Our program's a four-hour course with ongoing quarterly connections where we talk about additional training. And then they, of course, can always reach out for additional support.

And I think listening to what people are saying and listening for feedback. Our first year that we launched, I think we were really hoping – especially during the pandemic – for a lot of people to reach for peer support. But what we ended up hearing – and I think this is a true measure of success that's really hard to actually measure – is that I didn't have any formal consults this year, but I helped a lot of nurses on my unit. And that's really the goal.

We're hoping to create a culture where we have a peer support program if you need help but that you feel comfortable enough turning to your colleague and saying, "Hey, can we talk about this?" Or your colleague reaches out to you and says, "I want to have a chat with you. I'm worried about you, and I care about you."