Moral distress of medical family therapists and their physician colleagues during the transition to COVID‐19

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic has transformed healthcare for both clinicians and patients. This conceptual article uses ideas from the moral distress literature to understand the challenges MedFTs and physicians face during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The authors highlight earlier themes from the moral distress literature and share current reflections to illustrate similar challenges. Some clinicians who were already experiencing a rise in burnout due to the mass digitization of healthcare are now facing increased moral distress due to ethical dilemmas, pervasive uncertainty, boundary ambiguity, isolation, and burnout brought about by emerging COVID‐19 policies. Fears about personal safety, exposing loved ones, financial concerns, self‐doubt, and frustrations with telehealth have contributed to increased moral distress during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Building resilience by setting one's personal moral compass can help clinicians avoid the pitfalls of moral distress. Five steps for developing resilience and implications for guiding trainees in developing resilience are discussed.

Social Work Practice During COVID-19: Client Needs and Boundary Challenges

“…A practitioner described pressure to respond outside of business hours as "morally triggering" because of the difficulty determining what was best for their client. This finding corresponds with the literature on "moral distress," whereby repeated ethical dilemmas can produce distress and burnout (Dean et al, 2020;Patterson et al, 2021). There has been increased moral distress during COVID-19 due to dramatic policy changes (Patterson et al, 2021) as well as ethical dilemmas, boundary uncertainty, isolation, and burnout (Patterson et al, 2021;Ross et al, 2021).…”

A Scoping Review of Moral Stressors, Moral Distress and Moral Injury in Healthcare Workers during COVID-19

“…The organizational barriers were characterized by directives such as care during crisis conditions [7] with increased patient volume, and by working under conditions of a task-oriented model of care [13]. Young physicians named problems balancing personal needs with the demands of the workplace to meet the needs of patients during the pandemic [17]. Mental health HCWs reported having additional responsibility in times of increased workload [23].…”

“…Moral distress is a prominent phenomenon in healthcare professions [5][6][7][8][9] that has been studied across different aspects of healthcare provision, especially in nursing [5,6,8]. While there is not a unified definition of who constitutes a healthcare worker (HCW) across studies measuring MD and/or MI, other groups that have been studied in this context include physicians [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21], mental health workers (e.g., psychologists and psychotherapists) [3,19,20,22,23], and chaplains [15]. In general, HCWs have been conceptualized as individuals who actively engage in the protection and the improvement of the health of society [24].…”

Exploring the Potential Impact of a Virtual Body Scan Meditation Exercise Conducted With Pet Dogs on Recipients and Facilitators

“…Of importance, therapists are tasked with supporting others while concurrently experiencing pandemic related stressors. In light of the increased risk of burnout -which can lead to decreased quality of client care -faced by counselors/therapists during the pandemic, the importance of mental health practitioners addressing their own psychological health is vital (Rupert and Morgan, 2005;Yang and Hayes, 2020;Holmes et al, 2021;Patterson et al, 2021). Facilitators in this study noted that their experience was not only enjoyable and relaxing, but also gave them a sense of purpose through the ability to offer a useful intervention to others.…”