Abstract: Objectives: To investigate the experiences of the nurses as the second victims after the adverse events. Methods: The convenient sampling method was applied. Totally 258 nurses from two general hospitals in Sichuan were included. The Second Victim Experience and Support Tool (SVEST) and Adverse Event Characteristics Questionnaire (AECQ) were performed in this study. Results: The score of the distress was (3.22±0.93), the organizational support was (2.59±0.56), turnover intentions was (3.38±1.26), absenteeism was (2.85±1.14), non-work-related support was (2.18±1.03) respectively. The variables that could explain the variation of dependent variables were the absenteeism (6.3%), organizational support (4.7%), non-work-related support (2.5%) and turnover intentions (1.6%). Conclusion: Nurses experience second victim distress after the adverse events, but they only accept low level support from the working environment. Hospital managers should provide high level of organizational support and professional psychological counseling to nurses in order to promote the nurses health.

Key words: patient safety; adverse event; second victim; contribute factor