Suffering in Silence: The Health Professional’s Experience of Adverse Events and Medical Error
Hain, A. (Queens University)
In this paper, I will follow Martin Heidegger’s and Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophical underpinnings to understand health care professional’s experience of the phenomena of the second victim as it is situated within the broader problem of adverse events/ medical error and patient safety. All too frequently, health care professionals involved in adverse events/medical errors
stay silent with feelings of fear, shame, guilt, self-doubt, anger and disappointment. No health care professional wishes to harm patients in his or her care, however unintended harm does occur. The term “second victim” has been put forward to describe the impact of unintended patient harm incidents on health professionals. Second victim health providers who have been involved in unanticipated adverse events/medical errors feel they have failed their patient and are traumatized by the outcomes. Many of these providers go on to experience emotional, cognitive and behavioural reactions and seriously second-guess their clinical skills and knowledge. The first priority for compassionate care in adverse events/medical error is most assuredly for patients and families, but far too often health providers are expected to pick up and carry on with minimal support, going on to suffer in silence crippling any true progress in the area of medical error/ adverse events. The discussion will posit that a deeper contemplation and understanding of the lived experiences of health care professionals involved in unintended patient harm incidents, can only shed more light on how healers may heal themselves and perhaps go on to influence positive system change. By considering how this painful and often life changing phenomenon has the potential to deeply harm all health professionals as well as, more preferably, inspire and influence peers and the systems of care in potentially profoundly rich ways - progress may be possible.
In this paper, I will follow Martin Heidegger’s and Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophical underpinnings to understand health care professional’s experience of the phenomena of the second victim as it is situated within the broader problem of adverse events/ medical error and patient safety. All too frequently, health care professionals involved in adverse events/medical errors
stay silent with feelings of fear, shame, guilt, self-doubt, anger and disappointment. No health care professional wishes to harm patients in his or her care, however unintended harm does occur. The term “second victim” has been put forward to describe the impact of unintended patient harm incidents on health professionals. Second victim health providers who have been involved in unanticipated adverse events/medical errors feel they have failed their patient and are traumatized by the outcomes. Many of these providers go on to experience emotional, cognitive and behavioural reactions and seriously second-guess their clinical skills and knowledge. The first priority for compassionate care in adverse events/medical error is most assuredly for patients and families, but far too often health providers are expected to pick up and carry on with minimal support, going on to suffer in silence crippling any true progress in the area of medical error/ adverse events. The discussion will posit that a deeper contemplation and understanding of the lived experiences of health care professionals involved in unintended patient harm incidents, can only shed more light on how healers may heal themselves and perhaps go on to influence positive system change. By considering how this painful and often life changing phenomenon has the potential to deeply harm all health professionals as well as, more preferably, inspire and influence peers and the systems of care in potentially profoundly rich ways - progress may be possible.
About Hope
Vin, E. (University of Quebec at Montreal)
Throughout this short presentation, I will perform an hermeneutic elaboration about Hope. The origin of this reflection comes from the observation that among our patients, many have lost Hope. Without it, they also lost their ability to move freely into their life. They are somehow disillusioned about the meaning and the course of their existence. Of course, this has consequences concerning their level of performance, their vitality and their health, but this is also sometimes for them a deep question of life and death. These persons often don’t know how to proceed and who to trust in order to gain back their wholeness and balance. Because Hope continuously fuels our existence, it animates our body and our soul and provides us with the energy to fight against existential depletion. But as therapists, can we understand the way it proceeds and how to channel it in order to help our patients? During this session, I will examine the question of Hope with the help of two milleniums-old traditions: the ancient Greek myth of Pandora and the Christian tradition of theological virtues. We will see how these antique thoughts can teach us about Hope and give us helpful resources in order to overcome the struggle we face as human beings towards life’s existential burdens