St Andrew’s Healthcare and the British Psychological Society are delighted to be jointly hosting a one day conference to bring together health professionals and the leading researchers in this field to explore conceptual and clinical issues relating to Moral Injury.
Moral injury has predominantly been explored in military populations, although more recently its relevance to past and currently serving police, paramedics, healthcare practitioners, veterinary practitioners, journalists and teachers has been explored. Dr. Wendy Dean will present on her foundational work with moral injury.
Burnout and depression are still serious problems among physicians, especially amid COVID-19. More than 12,000 physicians told us how burnout has affected their relationships, career, and happiness. Dr. Wendy Dean helps frame this conversation with moral injury.
The collectivist spirit of sewing masks and applauding health care workers from the spring has given way to vitriolic politicization of basic public health measures like mask-wearing, said Wendy Dean, a physician who co-founded the nonprofit Moral Injury of Healthcare to highlight issues of clinician distress.
Drs. Dean and Talbot will present on moral injury at SUNY Downstate on December 2, 2020 at 11am.
The event will be held virtually. The doctors will present for 30 minutes and have 30 minutes of Q&A.
To attend, please visit:
HTTPS://ZOOM.US/J/98783102776
Password: suny
In our latest piece for STAT News, Drs. Dean and Talbot examine how it is time for leaders of hospitals and health care systems to add another, deeper layer of support for their staff by speaking out publicly and collectively in defense of science, safety, and public health, even if it risks estranging patients and politicians.
What exactly is moral injury – and how do we address the continued challenges faced by healthcare workers?
Moral Injury: An erosion of a person’s moral framework that results from violation(s), often leading to one questioning their field of practice or work as trustworthy or safe. This can often be thought of as providers having highly conflicting allegiances between work demands and the Hippocratic Oath.
Finish reading this post on Forbes.com
Researchers are concerned that nurses working in a rapidly changing crisis like the pandemic can develop a psychological response called “moral injury.”
“Probably the biggest driver of burnout is unrecognized unintended moral injury.”
In parts of the country over the summer, nurses got some mental health respite when cases declined, said Dr. Wendy Dean.
“The pandemic arrived to a healthcare system that’s already deeply in crisis,” said Wendy Dean, a psychiatrist and president of Moral Injury of Healthcare, a group that advocates for more sustainable medical workplaces. “All of the challenges that clinicians are facing prior to the pandemic are just highlighted, exacerbated, and added to.”
In this piece with Talkspace, Dr. Dean outlines some of the basics of moral injury prevention for individuals to take.
As always, our organization has resources available for organizations and individuals experiencing moral injury due to COVID-19.
In this segment with NPR’s Here and Now, Dr. Wendy Dean is interviewed by Amanda Peacher on the toll the COVID-19 crisis is taking on front line staff in hospitals.
Some psychiatrists are even manning a hotline to help their fellow healthcare workers. Listen in via the link below.
Clinicians wade into the breach of COVID-19 without sufficient protection, even as their pay is cut, their protests gagged, their employment threatened, and as they watch their colleagues and friends fall ill.
We mustn’t lose sight of how moral injury is in the fabric of this pandemic.
