This is the first study to investigate the experiences and needs of NHS staff following a colleague death by suicide. The novel findings add to knowledge of the impact of suicide in the workplace, specifically in healthcare settings. The findings are pertinent to senior leaders and policy-makers, within and beyond NHS Trusts and integrated care boards (ICBs) who wish to understand the postvention needs of staff in healthcare settings. The developed grounded theory provides an empirical evidence base that will contribute to the development of much-needed postvention guidance for the NHS. We aimed to build theory based on an inductive understanding of participants’ experiences, perceptions and needs; qualitative methods are best suited to such aims. Grounded theory is suited to un-researched topics and populations.117
We made efforts during our participant recruitment period to establish connections with ethnically diverse populations of NHS workers. Despite this, our sample was solely White British. Given that Black and minority ethnic people comprise almost a quarter of the NHS workforce,120 our findings are unlikely to represent the experiences of all staff members.
Most participants talked about deaths which ranged from less than a year ago to 4 years ago. However, four participants talked about deaths which had occurred 9–10 years ago, meaning their memories of that time may have been impacted.