Emotional toll of ‘never events’ on staff

Editor's Note

An aspect of “never events”that is rarely discussed is the emotional toll they take on staff, according to this editorial.

In each case, staff experience an enormous amount of emotional trauma, and a significant amount of accusation and stigmatization occurs.

It is not enough to prevent and manage never events for patient safety and satisfaction. It is essential to provide adequate legal, social, and psychological interventions tor the staff.

To the Editor Despite the statistics systematically summarized by Hempel and collegues1 in a recent issue of JAMA Surgery, never events (ie, serious, preventable surgical events) have enormously emotional aspects that touch everyone involved. Out of an unlimited number of possible surgical...