This study aimed to describe the types of psychological and physical symptoms experienced by healthcare professionals who became second victims after a patient safety incident and the impact of the incident on their social and professional lives.
Scoping review.
JBI methodology for scoping reviews and PRISMA-ScR for reporting were followed.
The search was conducted on June 13, 2024, using the CINAHL (EBSCO), Scopus, PubMed (Medline), Medic and PsycInfo (EBSCO) databases. A grey literature search was also conducted.
A total of 96 papers were included. Healthcare professionals experienced psychological symptoms such as anger, sadness and guilt after a safety incident. Physical symptoms were reported, including symptoms related to sleep and gastrointestinal symptoms. At the professional and social levels, the incident affected their work, relationships and well-being. Positive impacts were also noted.
This study provides a comprehensive overview of healthcare professionals' experiences after safety incidents. In addition, this study also captured the positive impacts of safety incidents, such as learning from mistakes.
By recognising the symptoms and impacts associated with the second victim syndrome, appropriate support can be provided for healthcare professionals.
The findings of this study can be used to identify the relevant harm to professionals after a safety incident, which could help to improve the well-being of these workers.
No patient or public contribution.
Open Science Framework, https://archive.org/details/osf-registrations-5cdmu-v1
To (1) analyse managers' experiences with handling patient safety incident reports in an incident reporting software, identifying key challenges; (2) analyse the incident report processes from the managers' perspective; (3) examine managers' perceptions of ways to support and improve health professionals' experiences of report-handling processes; and (4) investigate how, from their point of view, incident reporting software should be developed in the future.
A descriptive qualitative study.
Interviews and focus group discussions on Microsoft Teams from 11/2024 to 3/2025, including 16 participants, analysis with deductive and inductive content analysis.
Of 16 participants, 15 were managers and one was a patient safety expert. Most were nurse managers (n = 9). Four discussion themes were divided into 30 categories. Participants highlighted the need to improve the reporting software's terminology, classification and analysis tools. The use of artificial intelligence was desired but not currently integrated into the software. Participants were unsure of their skills to use all the software features. Clear and transparent handling processes, feedback, managers' behaviour and communication methods were seen as key to improving staff's experience with report processes. A real-time warning system was considered beneficial for various incident types. Specific questions must be answered before further developing such systems.
This study deepened the understanding of reporting software's challenges regarding its handling features. The handling processes of incident reports had multiple shortcomings, which may negatively affect health professionals' experiences in report handling. Real-time warning systems could assist healthcare managers in processing reports.
Organisational-level guidance for incident report processing is needed. Improvements to report processing and reporting software can improve shared learning and understanding of the status of patient safety.
No patient or public contribution.
COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualitative research Checklist.
To investigate factors influencing the implementation of advanced practice nursing roles within healthcare organisations in seven European countries from the perspective of advanced practice nurses.
A cross-sectional survey was conducted between September 2021 and December 2022, involving advanced practice nurses from Belgium, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands. The countries were selected to represent different stages of implementing advanced practice nursing roles, from emerging to well-established.
A self-administered questionnaire was used to address five domains: patient care, practice patterns, policy and legal, educational and workforce-related factors. Descriptive statistics, chi-squared tests and correspondence analysis were employed to identify patterns and country-specific differences across these domains of implementation factors.
A total of 491 advanced practice nurses participated in the study. While almost three-quarters of the participants indicated satisfaction with their job, the study highlighted multifaceted factors influencing the implementation of advanced practice nursing roles across countries. The Netherlands, Ireland and Belgium reported mainly facilitators, whereas Finland, Iceland and Germany noted barriers or a lack of knowledge. Spain mostly reported neutral or moderate positions. Key challenges included role ambiguity, interprofessional collaboration gaps, limited managerial support, workload imbalances, limited mentorship and underutilised competencies. Results also indicated that advanced practice nurses are partially hindered by operating in isolation from other professions.
The findings emphasise the need for robust organisational support, interprofessional collaboration and clear role definitions to facilitate the integration of advanced practice nursing roles. Addressing professional isolation through networking and mentorship is crucial to sustaining the advanced practice nursing workforce.
Policy should prioritise support for advanced practice nursing, including structured mentoring and networking opportunities. Further research on advanced practice nurses' well-being and long-term role sustainability in Europe is recommended.
What problem did the study address? What were the main findings? Where and on whom will the research have an impact?
This study reported factors influencing advanced practice nurse role implementation across seven European countries with different levels of role development. Key challenges included role ambiguity, interprofessional collaboration gaps and limited support. The findings can guide healthcare managers and policymakers on the key factors to consider when integrating advanced practice nursing roles into their teams.
Adolescence is a time of rapid physical, social and psychological development and many risk factors for mental disorders have their roots in this age period. Primary prevention through school platforms has been extensively used and evaluated, but many interventions have poor uptake, high dropout and limited long-term sustainability. Mental health is a complex phenomenon and may be best supported through multicomponent interventions that more holistically consider inner, social and environmental levels. Character education-focused interventions are effective for improving adolescent psychosocial functioning and mental well-being. Therefore, an intervention that focuses on developing these strengths and is delivered within a school environment, through an adolescent-informed approach using creativity-focused components, has the potential to improve adolescent mental health and well-being.
This protocol describes the YiPEE cluster-randomised controlled trial with concurrent mixed-methods process evaluation and economic evaluation, which aims to determine the impact of a multilevel multicomponent intervention in schools in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Clusters—defined as schools which include Grades 6–8 (ages 11–16 years), will be randomised to intervention (n=15) or control (n=15). The intervention consists of: an 8-week classroom-based component, a 12-week teacher-focused component and a board comprising members from across the whole school. All children attending Grade 7 (aged 12–15) will be exposed to the classroom component, and teachers who actively teach Grade 7 will be invited to participate in the teacher component. Within schools, students for the individual-level evaluation will be included if they are: (1) aged 12–15 years; (2) currently attending Grade 7; (3) competent to give consent and (4) have a legal guardian competent of giving consent. We aim to sample a minimum of 100 students from each school (n=3000). All teachers of Grades 6–8 will be recruited for the evaluation. The primary outcome is symptoms of anxiety and depression measured using an abbreviated version of the UNICEF MMAPP tool. The primary analysis will be intention-to-treat, comparing the mean change in mental health score between baseline and endline, between intervention and control clusters. In addition, we will record school monitoring data (student attendance, student grades). Individual interviews with students and teachers, focus group discussions with school staff, and ethnographic observations will provide data for the process evaluation. For the economic evaluation, the combined direct and non-direct costs will be compared with changes in mental health in the intervention arm.
The trial is approved by the Ethics Council of the Schizophrenia Research Foundation, India, with approval number EC/NEW/INST/2023/TN/0329. We plan to publish the main impact, process and economic evaluation results as academic publications in international peer-reviewed journals in 2026.
Clinical Trials Registry—India (CTRI/2024/07/070949).
To identify and synthesise recommendations and guidelines for mental health chatbot conversational design.
Integrative review.
Suitable publications presenting recommendations or guidelines for mental health conversational design were included. The quality of included publications was assessed using Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tools. Thematic analysis was conducted.
Primary searches limited to last 10 years were conducted in PubMed, Scopus, ACM Digital Library and EBSCO databases including APA PsycINFO, CINAHL, APA PsycArticles and MEDLINE in February 2023 and updated in October 2023. A secondary search was conducted in Google Scholar in May 2023.
Of 1684 articles screened, 16 publications were selected. Three overarching themes were developed: (1) explicit knowledge about chatbot design and domain, (2) knowing your audience and (3) creating a safe space to engage. Results highlight that creating pleasant and effective conversations with a mental health chatbot requires careful and professional planning in advance, defining the target group and working together with it to address its needs and preferences. It is essential to emphasise the pleasant user experience and safety from both technical and psychological perspectives.
Recommendations for mental health chatbot conversational design have evolved and become more specific in recent years. Recommendations set high standards for mental health chatbots. To meet that, co-design, explicit knowledge of the user needs, domain and conversational design is needed.
Mental health professionals participating in chatbot development can utilise this review. The results can also inform technical development teams not involving healthcare professionals directly.
Knowledge of developing mental health chatbot conversations appears scattered. In mental health chatbots, features that enhance the chatbot's ability to meet users' needs and increase safety should be considered. This review is useful for developers of mental health chatbots and other health applications used independently.
This integrative review was reported according to PRISMA guidelines, as applicable.
No patient or public contribution.
To describe the perspectives of patients using digital services on the digital counselling competence of healthcare professionals.
A descriptive qualitative interview study.
The analysed data were collected in Finland during the spring of 2023 via 11 individual, semi-structured interviews from participants who had received video-mediated counselling. The interviews were carried out online through Microsoft Teams and adhered to an interview guide using main and ancillary questions. The data were analysed using inductive content analysis.
The patients' perspectives of healthcare professionals' digital counselling competence were related to five categories: (1) competence in preparing for video-mediated counselling, (2) digital competence in implementing the video-mediated counselling, (3) competence in interacting with the patient during the video-mediated counselling, (4) competence in supporting the patient's self-management in video-mediated counselling and (5) competence in self-development as a digital counsellor.
The results of this study indicate that healthcare professionals need to possess a wide range of digital counselling competencies when providing video-mediated counselling. This study thus lays the groundwork for future studies of patients' perspectives of healthcare professionals' digital counselling competence.
The results of this study can be used to develop healthcare professionals' digital counselling competence and patient-centered care. The presented insights can also be used to map further research topics.
The Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) checklist was used when reporting the results.
Patients who had experience in using digital services participated in the data collection of this study.
What problem did the study address? Healthcare professionals may well need to develop new competencies as counselling is increasingly moving to digital environments. What were the main findings? The main areas of digital counselling competence that emerged from the patients' perspectives were competence in preparing for video-mediated counselling, digital competence, competence in interacting with the patient, competence in supporting self-management and competence in self-development as a digital counsellor. Where and on whom will the research have an impact? The research can be used to build and develop healthcare professionals' digital counselling competence, as well as improve the delivery of patient-centered care.