How can we better support people in healthcare who are living and working with moral injury and moral distress? SWITCH BC and the Physician Health Program hosted a webinar with keynote speaker Dr. Wendy Dean to discuss her research in moving health care teams through moral injury and into more psychologically safer workplaces. 

What is moral injury and moral distress?  

Moral injury can occur in response to acting or witnessing behaviors that go against an individual’s values and moral beliefs. 

Moral distress can occur when a person feels unable to take what they believe to be an ethically appropriate or right course of action, including avoiding wrongdoing or harm, because of system-wide obstacles and limitations. Moral distress is a healthcare specific psychosocial factor impacting workplace wellbeing as identified in the Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. Visit Factors for Health and Safety – Switch BC to learn more. 

Who is Dr. Dean? 

Dr. Wendy Dean, a former emergency room physician and psychiatrist who has spent most of her career at the intersection of medicine, business, and courageous creativity. Dr. Dean has held several leadership positions and oversaw medical research funding and guided strategy for the US army. Her focus now is on finding innovative ways to make medicine better for both patients and physicians. Since 2019, she turned her full attention to addressing moral injury in healthcare.  

What will I learn by watching? 

While burnout is a word often used today to describe what’s happening for healthcare workers, it doesn’t resonate with how many healthcare workers feel about their work. Moral injury, the impact of working in a system that often time prevents healthcare workers from providing the care or services they know are needed by their patients, residents, or clients is a term that is being used more widely to explain what’s really impacting healthcare workers. Suggestions and solutions to reduce moral injury in healthcare will be discussed with a focus on how to  build system and organizational resilience rather than relying on the individual resilience of health care workers.