Self-Assessment and Learning Motivation in the Second Victim Phenomenon

Stefan Bushuven (), Milena Trifunovic-Koenig, Michael Bentele, Stefanie Bentele, Reinhard Strametz, Victoria Klemm and Matthias Raspe
Additional contact information
Stefan Bushuven: Institute for Infection Control and Infection Prevention, Hegau-Jugendwerk Gailingen, Health Care Association District of Constance, 78262 Gailingen, Germany
Milena Trifunovic-Koenig: Institute for Infection Control and Infection Prevention, Hegau-Jugendwerk Gailingen, Health Care Association District of Constance, 78262 Gailingen, Germany
Michael Bentele: Training Center for Emergency Medicine (NOTIS e.V.), 78234 Engen, Germany
Stefanie Bentele: Training Center for Emergency Medicine (NOTIS e.V.), 78234 Engen, Germany
Reinhard Strametz: Wiesbaden Business School, Rhein Main University of Applied Sciences, 65183 Wiesbaden, Germany
Victoria Klemm: Wiesbaden Business School, Rhein Main University of Applied Sciences, 65183 Wiesbaden, Germany
Matthias Raspe: Department of Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Respiratory Medicine, Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 23, 1-19

Abstract: Introduction: The experience of a second victim phenomenon after an event plays a significant role in health care providers’ well-being. Untreated; it may lead to severe harm to victims and their families; other patients; hospitals; and society due to impairment or even loss of highly specialised employees. In order to manage the phenomenon, lifelong learning is inevitable but depends on learning motivation to attend training. This motivation may be impaired by overconfidence effects (e.g., over-placement and overestimation) that may suggest no demand for education. The aim of this study was to examine the interdependency of learning motivation and overconfidence concerning second victim effects. Methods: We assessed 176 physicians about overconfidence and learning motivation combined with a knowledge test. The nationwide online study took place in early 2022 and addressed about 3000 German physicians of internal medicine. Statistics included analytical and qualitative methods. Results: Of 176 participants, 83 completed the assessment. Analysis showed the presence of two overconfidence effects and in-group biases (clinical tribalism). None of the effects correlated directly with learning motivation, but cluster analysis revealed three different learning types: highly motivated, competent, and confident “experts”, motivated and overconfident “recruitables”, and unmotivated and overconfident “unawares”. Qualitative analysis revealed four main themes: “environmental factors”, “emotionality”, “violence and death”, and “missing qualifications” contributing to the phenomenon. Discussion: We confirmed the presence of overconfidence in second victim management competencies in about 3% of all persons addressed. Further, we could detect the same three learning motivation patterns compared to preceding studies on learning motivation in other medical competencies like life support and infection control. These findings considering overconfidence effects may be helpful for safety managers, medical teachers, curriculum developers and supervisors to create preventive educational curricula on second victim recognition and management.

Keywords: second victim; clinical tribalism; overconfidence; Dunning–Kruger-effect; education; mental health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/16016/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/16016/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:16016-:d:989195

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().