“Once and done” coursework on the bioethical principles that guide providers is simply insufficient in today’s disparate healthcare system in which our patients live longer lives with multiple chronic and complex conditions. Interdisciplinary ethics education helps all members on the healthcare team understand the concerns that are specific to each profession. With mutual understanding, we…
Moral distress (MD) has deleterious effects on healthcare providers and is, unfortunately, all too common. The literature demonstrates that MD contributes to burnout which in turn negatively affects patient safety, quality of healthcare delivery and labor costs. And we all know moral distress and burnout are the best kept “dirty secrets” of healthcare.
In 1984, Andrew Jameton conceptualized the definition of moral distress as the following: “(a) the psychological distress of (b) being in a situation in which one is constrained from acting (c) on what one knows to be right” (p. 6) and while this definition has developed more nuance over the years, this core concept remains….
