Nurse ethicists call for research into moral distress

To combat burnout, “More attention must be paid to the connections between the type and frequency of ethical issues in health care practice, the emotional intensity and cognitive complexity of these issues, constraints on providers, and the resulting moral distress,” write bioethicists Connie Ulrich, PhD, RN, and Christine Grady, PhD, RN. Clinicians report feeling troubled when they are unable to provide what they believe to be the best care for patients, and these feelings can lead to burnout and other symptoms, they say. “Training and experience can often give clinicians the confidence, moral clarity, and self-efficacy to make difficult decisions without feelings of moral distress—a characteristic we call ‘moral strength’,” Ulrich and Grady write. They argue more research is needed to identify those educational and institutional resources that can best help clinicians develop and act with moral strength. (National Academy of Medicine commentary, 9/23/19)