The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) has described a critical incident, such as that described above, as an overwhelming and powerful event that lies outside the range of human experience, and which has the potential to exhaust one’s usual coping mechanisms, thus resulting in psychological distress and disruption of normal adaptive functioning.1 The stress response following a critical incident has been described as a second victim phenomenon.2 More specifically, a second victim is any health care provider involved in an unanticipated adverse patient event and who becomes traumatized by the event.2 It is common for second victims to feel personally responsible for the outcomes while second guessing their clinical skills and
