The aftermath of a perioperative death: who cares for the clinician?

Working in the perioperative environment entails exposure to traumatic and sometimes catastrophic events such as a perioperative death (PD). PD can be a uniquely devastating experience and has the potential to lead to long-term negative physical and psychological effects for the staff involved, especially when appropriate support is absent. In a number of practice settings, these destabilizing effects have been shown to detrimentally compromise individual and team performance.1 This is of particular concern in the perioperative setting, since deterioration of individual competence and subsequent team performance has been directly linked to poor patient outcomes. Despite numerous studies establishing this link, there has been little research exploring clinicians' experiences of PD and organisational support for front-line clinicians remains alarmingly inconsistent. The question remains, who is responsible to the clinician in the aftermath of a perioperative death?