Research Gaps and Recommendations to Guide Research on Assessment, Prevention, and Treatment of Moral Injury Among Healthcare Workers

Healthcare workers face numerous occupational stressors, including some that may challenge personal and shared morals and values. This is particularly true during disasters and crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which require critical decisions to be made with little time and information often un...

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Published inFrontiers in psychiatry Vol. 13; p. 874729
Main Authors Maguen, Shira, Griffin, Brandon J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 15.04.2022
Subjects
assessment
healthcare workers
mental health
moral injury
prevention
Psychiatry
treatment
assessment
treatment
healthcare workers
mental health
moral injury
prevention
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Summary:Healthcare workers face numerous occupational stressors, including some that may challenge personal and shared morals and values. This is particularly true during disasters and crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which require critical decisions to be made with little time and information often under personal distress and situational constraints. Consequently, healthcare workers are at risk for moral injuries characterized by stress-related and functional impacts. Although research on the evaluation and treatment of moral injury among military veterans burgeoned in the recent decade, addressing moral injury in healthcare workers and other civilians remains an important gap. In this perspective piece, we identify research gaps and make recommendations to advance future work on assessment, prevention, and treatment of moral injury in healthcare workers. We draw on empirical studies of moral injury in veterans, limited studies of moral injury in health professionals, and our clinical experiences with healthcare workers affected by moral injury.
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ORCID: Shira Maguen orcid.org/0000-0002-1234-7234
Brandon J. Griffin orcid.org/0000-0002-9358-6180
Edited by: Andrew James Greenshaw, University of Alberta, Canada
Reviewed by: Laura E. Watkins, Emory University, United States; Ejemai Eboreime, University of Alberta, Canada; Jason Nieuwsma, Duke University, United States
This article was submitted to Psychopathology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry
ISSN:1664-0640
1664-0640
DOI:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.874729