Dr. Turner on the impact of adverse events on surgeons

In this video, Kevin Turner MA DM FRCS(Urol), discusses the background and notable findings from the recent Urologic Oncology paper “Hospital and departmental level strategies for managing the impact of adverse events on surgeons.” Turner is a consultant urological surgeon and visiting professor of urology at Royal Bournemouth Hospital and Bournemouth University, the United Kingdom.

Transcription:

Please describe the background for this paper.

For a number of years, I've been interested in the impact that adverse events have on surgeons. About 5 years ago, I started a small research group, based in Bournemouth in the UK, with the aim of trying to identify how surgeons are affected when things go wrong, and also to go beyond describing that to try and come up with strategies that might mitigate the impact that adverse events have on surgeons. Since we've been working together, we've done a major national survey in the UK, looking at the impact of adverse events on surgeons in the UK. And there's been a number of spin-offs from that. And it is that work which led to us just writing our most recent publication.

What were some of the notable findings? Were any of them surprising to you and your coauthors?

Our most recent publication is a review of hospital and departmental strategies to help surgeons deal with the impact of adverse events. So I guess in 1 sense, we were reviewing our own work and the work of others in this space. So I guess no real surprises there, except that I continue to be regularly surprised at just how much surgeons are affected when things go wrong, and how little surgeons engage with existing support mechanisms. And that's a finding from our own research and from the research that we reviewed for our most recent publication.

This transcription was edited for clarity.