“I’m No Hero:” Hearing and Healing Moral Distress as Moral Communities
Jacquelyn Harootunian-Cutts, PhD Student, Saint Louis University; Samuel Deters, MA, PhD(c), Saint Louis University; Kimbell Kornu, MD, PhD, Provost's Professor of Bioethics, Theology and Christian Formation, Belmont University; and Julie Gunby, CNM, MSN, MTS, PhD Student, Saint Louis University
Within the clinical context, care for the soul is generally relegated to the chaplain or outsourced to the leaders of the patient’s own faith community. But already, the soul for which we are caring has been identified as the patient’s soul. Rarely does healthcare—even religious healthcare—consider the souls of its own practitioners.
As reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic monopolized the reporting of popular media, healthcare professionals were increasingly labeled as heroes. Hospitals raised banners proclaiming “heroes work here,” families placed lawn signs saying “heroes live here,” and depictions of superheroes giving deference to the “real heroes” in scrubs populated social media posting. Out in local communities, support for healthcare workers appeared high. But inside hospitals, frontline clinicians witnessed untold levels of despair as they cared for victims of an unknown illness with no evidence-based treatments amidst shortages of workers, personal protective equipment, and beds. Not only were patients separated from their families, but clinicians often resorted to living in hotels, garages, or tents to avoid bringing this deadly virus home to their spouses, parents, and children. They advocated for more personal protective equipment, worked extra shifts, and used social media to ask people to stay home and wear masks. Despite their training, hard work, and advocacy, clinicians were often betrayed by their institutions, unable to alleviate suffering, and went unheeded by a divided society. Unable to do the right moral action, clinicians experienced moral distress in a new form. Unfortunately, many health systems did not hear this distress, and have still not intervened. If moral distress is defined as the distress resulting from the compromise of one’s moral integrity when prevented from taking the right moral action, then it has everything to do with the souls of frontline clinicians. This panel is intended to address how healthcare systems and communities of faith can hear this new form of moral distress and intervene beyond such a hearing to promote healing. As many bedside nurses and other clinicians leave their positions after the harms experienced during the pandemic, it is key that we learn how to hear remaining clinicians and help them heal.
The first panelist brings unique experience of actually hearing the moral distress of frontline colleagues during the pandemic. This rare intervention helped frontline clinicians tell their stories and process the moral dimensions of their work during an extremely stressful time. In partnering with the behavioral health department and overcoming structural challenges of space and time, this panelist will share lessons learned during these moral distress debriefings at the height of the pandemic.
The second panelist will discuss the role that faith communities can play in hearing the moral distress of clinicians who experienced moral distress due to the pandemic. Turning to the biblical expression of lament given in the Psalms, faith communities can bridge epistemic divides in experience among members as we lament past and present injustices and share in the hope for a better future.
Moving beyond the relief of sharing one’s lament, the next panelist will describe the potential pitfalls of using liturgical tools in a medical context. Since medicine has already made for itself many ersatz liturgies, in healing moral distress, we must take care not to form new ersatz liturgies which do not ultimately align with the Christian tradition.
Finally, our last panelist will describe the theological goals of liturgies that intend to heal moral distress. Mining resources from across the Christian tradition, this presenter offers multiple suggestions for liturgies that hold the potential to tend the moral wounds of clinicians.
As reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic monopolized the reporting of popular media, healthcare professionals were increasingly labeled as heroes. Hospitals raised banners proclaiming “heroes work here,” families placed lawn signs saying “heroes live here,” and depictions of superheroes giving deference to the “real heroes” in scrubs populated social media posting. Out in local communities, support for healthcare workers appeared high. But inside hospitals, frontline clinicians witnessed untold levels of despair as they cared for victims of an unknown illness with no evidence-based treatments amidst shortages of workers, personal protective equipment, and beds. Not only were patients separated from their families, but clinicians often resorted to living in hotels, garages, or tents to avoid bringing this deadly virus home to their spouses, parents, and children. They advocated for more personal protective equipment, worked extra shifts, and used social media to ask people to stay home and wear masks. Despite their training, hard work, and advocacy, clinicians were often betrayed by their institutions, unable to alleviate suffering, and went unheeded by a divided society. Unable to do the right moral action, clinicians experienced moral distress in a new form. Unfortunately, many health systems did not hear this distress, and have still not intervened. If moral distress is defined as the distress resulting from the compromise of one’s moral integrity when prevented from taking the right moral action, then it has everything to do with the souls of frontline clinicians. This panel is intended to address how healthcare systems and communities of faith can hear this new form of moral distress and intervene beyond such a hearing to promote healing. As many bedside nurses and other clinicians leave their positions after the harms experienced during the pandemic, it is key that we learn how to hear remaining clinicians and help them heal.
The first panelist brings unique experience of actually hearing the moral distress of frontline colleagues during the pandemic. This rare intervention helped frontline clinicians tell their stories and process the moral dimensions of their work during an extremely stressful time. In partnering with the behavioral health department and overcoming structural challenges of space and time, this panelist will share lessons learned during these moral distress debriefings at the height of the pandemic.
The second panelist will discuss the role that faith communities can play in hearing the moral distress of clinicians who experienced moral distress due to the pandemic. Turning to the biblical expression of lament given in the Psalms, faith communities can bridge epistemic divides in experience among members as we lament past and present injustices and share in the hope for a better future.
Moving beyond the relief of sharing one’s lament, the next panelist will describe the potential pitfalls of using liturgical tools in a medical context. Since medicine has already made for itself many ersatz liturgies, in healing moral distress, we must take care not to form new ersatz liturgies which do not ultimately align with the Christian tradition.
Finally, our last panelist will describe the theological goals of liturgies that intend to heal moral distress. Mining resources from across the Christian tradition, this presenter offers multiple suggestions for liturgies that hold the potential to tend the moral wounds of clinicians.