Hendin et al identified risk factors associated with distress in psychologists following suicide of a patient. These risk factors can be generalized to other practitioners following an adverse patient outcome. The authors are from New York Medical College, Lehman College of the City University of New York, Harvard Medical School and the University of Pittsburgh.
Risk factors for distress:
(1) failure to hospitalize the patient
(2) a treatment decision that the therapist feels contributed to the suicide
(3) negative reaction from the therapist's institution (or colleagues)
(4) fear of a lawsuit from the patient's relatives
Additional factors triggered by the death of a patient could contribute to the distress of the practitioner - stress, death of a loved one, depression, etc.
For the implementation I have made Likert scale responses and generalized the statements so that they can apply to other practitioners. A visual analogue scale would be an alternative method.
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