Cargando…
Moral injury and the COVID-19 pandemic: A philosophical viewpoint
INTRODUCTION: Much has changed in healthcare during the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic. Medicine, a profession of traditional principles and virtues, has faced unprecedented challenges in the light of scarce and unequal distribution of ventilators, testing, and personal protective equipment...
Autor principal: | |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7988441/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33778145 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jemep.2021.100661 |
_version_ | 1783668785811554304 |
---|---|
author | Akram, F. |
author_facet | Akram, F. |
author_sort | Akram, F. |
collection | PubMed |
description | INTRODUCTION: Much has changed in healthcare during the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic. Medicine, a profession of traditional principles and virtues, has faced unprecedented challenges in the light of scarce and unequal distribution of ventilators, testing, and personal protective equipment. Healthcare workers have been- and are increasingly likely to be- forced into situations that require difficult decision making under life-and-death conditions. Concepts of “medical necessity” and “maximum benefit” challenge healthcare systems that already struggle to manage unequal treatment and access to services, giving rise to moral distress and moral injury on the front lines. METHODS: This article focuses on moral injury in the context of coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic. I review recent literature to highlight the psychological impact of many morally-injurious events that have been reported during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the help of a clinical vignette, I point out how healthcare systems adopt many utilitarian policies in times of excessive healthcare burden. A viewpoint is offered that many morally injurious events happen when healthcare workers, traditionally practicing Kantian and virtue ethics, are forced to follow utilitarian policies of healthcare system. CONCLUSION: One form of moral injury may arise from inherent conflicts between individual deontological moral judgments and organizational utilitarian moral judgments. More research is needed to validate the philosophical viewpoint as well as to explore whether increased awareness and education of key principles within moral philosophy can better equip healthcare workers in situations when public health takes precedence over individual health. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7988441 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-79884412021-03-24 Moral injury and the COVID-19 pandemic: A philosophical viewpoint Akram, F. Ethics Med Public Health Original Article INTRODUCTION: Much has changed in healthcare during the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic. Medicine, a profession of traditional principles and virtues, has faced unprecedented challenges in the light of scarce and unequal distribution of ventilators, testing, and personal protective equipment. Healthcare workers have been- and are increasingly likely to be- forced into situations that require difficult decision making under life-and-death conditions. Concepts of “medical necessity” and “maximum benefit” challenge healthcare systems that already struggle to manage unequal treatment and access to services, giving rise to moral distress and moral injury on the front lines. METHODS: This article focuses on moral injury in the context of coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic. I review recent literature to highlight the psychological impact of many morally-injurious events that have been reported during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the help of a clinical vignette, I point out how healthcare systems adopt many utilitarian policies in times of excessive healthcare burden. A viewpoint is offered that many morally injurious events happen when healthcare workers, traditionally practicing Kantian and virtue ethics, are forced to follow utilitarian policies of healthcare system. CONCLUSION: One form of moral injury may arise from inherent conflicts between individual deontological moral judgments and organizational utilitarian moral judgments. More research is needed to validate the philosophical viewpoint as well as to explore whether increased awareness and education of key principles within moral philosophy can better equip healthcare workers in situations when public health takes precedence over individual health. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. 2021-09 2021-03-24 /pmc/articles/PMC7988441/ /pubmed/33778145 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jemep.2021.100661 Text en © 2021 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
spellingShingle | Original Article Akram, F. Moral injury and the COVID-19 pandemic: A philosophical viewpoint |
title | Moral injury and the COVID-19 pandemic: A philosophical viewpoint |
title_full | Moral injury and the COVID-19 pandemic: A philosophical viewpoint |
title_fullStr | Moral injury and the COVID-19 pandemic: A philosophical viewpoint |
title_full_unstemmed | Moral injury and the COVID-19 pandemic: A philosophical viewpoint |
title_short | Moral injury and the COVID-19 pandemic: A philosophical viewpoint |
title_sort | moral injury and the covid-19 pandemic: a philosophical viewpoint |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7988441/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33778145 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jemep.2021.100661 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT akramf moralinjuryandthecovid19pandemicaphilosophicalviewpoint |