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Chapter 39 - Moral Distress and Moral Injury

from Section 5 - Sustaining and Caring for Staff During Emergencies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2024

By
Esther Murray  and
Andrew Wood
Edited by
Richard Williams ,
Verity Kemp ,
Keith Porter ,
Tim Healing  and
John Drury
Richard Williams
Affiliation:
University of South Wales
Verity Kemp
Affiliation:
Independent Health Emergency Planning Consultant
Keith Porter
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Tim Healing
Affiliation:
Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London
John Drury
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
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Summary

This chapter explores the moral dimensions of work in emergency and pre-hospital medicine, with an emphasis on protecting the workforce and maintaining optimal functioning of teams. It explores the concepts of moral distress and moral injury from the literature and as they apply to emergency and pre-hospital medicine, but also in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes reference to the experience of one helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) organisation attempting to make changes to its culture.

Keywords

human factorsmoral distressmoral injurypre-hospital care
Type
Chapter
Information
Major Incidents, Pandemics and Mental Health
The Psychosocial Aspects of Health Emergencies, Incidents, Disasters and Disease Outbreaks
 , pp. 287 - 292
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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