I write to highlight a new concept within oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS)– second victim syndrome. ‘Second victims’ are defined as any healthcare worker involved in an adverse patient event who becomes negatively impacted emotionally and/or psychologically. This has since expanded to ‘Second Victim Syndrome’ (SVS) describing the symptoms felt following a traumatic or adverse event involving a patient. Whilst it is normal to be affected by unpredicted events, SVS relates to prolonged negative impacts clinicians may experience after the event itself; it can present as a wide array of symptoms including anxiety, depression, guilt, sleep disturbance, and low self-worth.
To our knowledge, there has been no research into SVS within OMFS in the UK. As part of my British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (BAOMS) student bursary project, I surveyed our members regarding their own experiences of SVS to highlight its prevalence and promote openness about SVS within OMFS.
As no diagnostic criteria for SVS currently exist, I designed a questionnaire using common symptomatology and distributed this via BAOMS online discussion groups.
A total of 97 responses were collected. Twenty-four per cent of respondents expressed previous awareness of SVS. Once SVS was defined within the questionnaire, 80% felt they had personally experienced it at some point in their careers ( Fig. 1 ), including symptoms of anxiety, crisis of confidence, sadness, guilt, sleep disturbance, and shame. As there are no formal diagnostic criteria for SVS, it is difficult to identify the spectrum of normal to abnormal emotional responses to an adverse event. This letter is to raise awareness of the support available to the readership rather than to offer specific diagnostic criteria for the condition.
