BONE Break: A Hot Debrief Tool to Reduce Second Victim Syndrome for Nurses

Abstract

The pandemic has intensified clinicians’ workloads, leading to an increased incidence of adverse events and subsequent second victim syndrome, with almost half of health care clinicians experiencing its symptoms. However, following a literature review, no tools were found that addressed second victim syndrome in nurses. To address these issues and the gap in the literature, the authors developed the BONE Break hot debriefing tool. BONE Break is designed to be facilitated by charge nurses or other unit leaders as a means of offering peer support to other nurses who went through an adverse event. During its initial implementation, BONE Break was employed in 43 of 46 events adverse events (93.5%), and 41 of 43 sessions (95.3%) were deemed helpful. The research team has continued to gain stakeholder buy-in and implement BONE Break across multiple sites. Future work will determine BONE Break's efficacy in enhancing long-term nursing retention and reducing second victim symptoms.