Abstract
Background: Nurses regularly encounter traumatic situations that can leave enduring scars, and without a formalized opportunity to reflect on these experiences, the repercussions can be severe, affecting personal health, team unity, and the standard of patient care. Healthcare workers who suffer from traumatic events are dubbed “second victims”. The patients and their families are the first casualties. Nurse leaders may lack insight into how debriefing impacts their teams’ quality of life at work and would benefit from additional clarity of how to incorporate consistent debriefing into their culture and workflows.
Purpose: This integrative review aims to explore the evidence regarding the impact of critical incident debriefing on healthcare workers’ quality of life, and the barriers and facilitators for implementation of debriefs.
Methods: A literature review was conducted using the criterion of including articles published from 2020 to 2025 that centered on critical incident debriefing and the well-being of healthcare professionals. Articles were accessed using CINAHL, Medline, EBSCO, ProQuest and PubMed. Included studies assessed critical debriefing and professional quality of life within the hospital setting. The John Hopkins Individual Evidence Summary Tool was used to collate and analyze the articles.
Results: In total, 10 studies were identified that provided a correlation between debriefing, critical incidents, and professional quality of life measures. Frequent debriefing promotes a culture of continuous improvement, in which improved protocols and processes are implemented using the lessons learnt from previous events. Nurses are left to handle the emotional aftermath of important situations alone in the absence of a systematic debriefing mechanism, which can have a serious detrimental impact on their mental health and increase fatigue, anxiety, and secondary traumatic stress disorder.
Implications: Addressing compassion fatigue among nurses requires emotional support from administration to cope with stress at work. Nurse leaders should prioritize psychological safety, confidentiality, and empathetic communication during critical debriefings, while fostering a learning culture, providing resources, and encouraging self-care to support nurses' well-being and resilience. By showing their dedication to the welfare of their nurses, healthcare leaders may foster a culture of psychological safety, which will eventually lead to a more cohesive team.
Notes
Presenter notes available in attached slide deck.
References:
Beres, K. E., Zajac, L. M., Mason, H., Krenke, K., & Costa, D. K. (2022). Addressing compassion fatigue in trauma emergency and Intensive Care Settings: A pilot study. Journal of Trauma Nursing, 29(4), 210–217. https://doi.org/10.1097/jtn.0000000000000663
Cantu, L., & Thomas, L. (2020). Baseline well-being, perceptions of critical incidents, and openness to debriefing in Community Hospital Emergency Department clinical staff before COVID-19, a cross-sectional study. BMC Emergency Medicine, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12873-020-00372-5
Melander, S., Dahl, O., Falk, A.-C., Lindström, V., Andersson, E., Gustavsson, P., & Rudman, A. (2024). Critical incidents and post-traumatic stress symptoms among experienced registered nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study. International Journal of Nursing Studies Advances, 6, 100194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnsa.2024.100194
Ugwu, C. V., Medows, M., Don-Pedro, D., & Chan, J. (2020). Critical event debriefing in a Community Hospital. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.8822
Walker, C. A., McGregor, L., Taylor, C., & Robinson, S. (2020). Stop5: A hot debrief model for resuscitation cases in the emergency department. Clinical and Experimental Emergency Medicine, 7(4), 259–266. https://doi.org/10.15441/ceem.19.086
Sigma Membership
Phi Pi
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Mixed/Multi Method Research
Keywords:
Stress/Coping, Psychological Stress, Coping, Interprofessional Initiatives, Interprofessional Relations, Teaching/Learning Strategies, Teaching, Learning Methods, Collaboration, Communication, Teamwork, Debriefing, Crisis Intervention, Victims, Second Victim Syndrome
Recommended Citation
Scott, Sidia, "The Healing Huddle: Preventing Nurse Second Victimization Through Post-Event Debriefing" (2026). Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE). 71.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/chwe/2026/presentations_2026/71
Conference Name
Creating Healthy Work Environments
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Washington, DC, USA
Conference Year
2026
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2026-05-03
The Healing Huddle: Preventing Nurse Second Victimization Through Post-Event Debriefing
Washington, DC, USA
Background: Nurses regularly encounter traumatic situations that can leave enduring scars, and without a formalized opportunity to reflect on these experiences, the repercussions can be severe, affecting personal health, team unity, and the standard of patient care. Healthcare workers who suffer from traumatic events are dubbed “second victims”. The patients and their families are the first casualties. Nurse leaders may lack insight into how debriefing impacts their teams’ quality of life at work and would benefit from additional clarity of how to incorporate consistent debriefing into their culture and workflows.
Purpose: This integrative review aims to explore the evidence regarding the impact of critical incident debriefing on healthcare workers’ quality of life, and the barriers and facilitators for implementation of debriefs.
Methods: A literature review was conducted using the criterion of including articles published from 2020 to 2025 that centered on critical incident debriefing and the well-being of healthcare professionals. Articles were accessed using CINAHL, Medline, EBSCO, ProQuest and PubMed. Included studies assessed critical debriefing and professional quality of life within the hospital setting. The John Hopkins Individual Evidence Summary Tool was used to collate and analyze the articles.
Results: In total, 10 studies were identified that provided a correlation between debriefing, critical incidents, and professional quality of life measures. Frequent debriefing promotes a culture of continuous improvement, in which improved protocols and processes are implemented using the lessons learnt from previous events. Nurses are left to handle the emotional aftermath of important situations alone in the absence of a systematic debriefing mechanism, which can have a serious detrimental impact on their mental health and increase fatigue, anxiety, and secondary traumatic stress disorder.
Implications: Addressing compassion fatigue among nurses requires emotional support from administration to cope with stress at work. Nurse leaders should prioritize psychological safety, confidentiality, and empathetic communication during critical debriefings, while fostering a learning culture, providing resources, and encouraging self-care to support nurses' well-being and resilience. By showing their dedication to the welfare of their nurses, healthcare leaders may foster a culture of psychological safety, which will eventually lead to a more cohesive team.
Description
By giving healthcare professionals a private, accepting environment in which to process traumatic events, the debriefing process promotes psychological safety. It specifically attempts to combat the innate human propensity for self-blame by normalizing stressful responses and reorienting attention from personal mistakes to systemic changes.