Another Pandemic : How moral distress affected Polish and Lithuanian clinicians

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has transgressed biomedical categories. According to Horton, it turned out to be a 'syndrome' that infected virtually all spheres of social life. The pandemic has created toxic social atmosphere highly unfavorable to clinical and clinic-ethical decision making. Cons...

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Authors: Nowak, Ewa (Author) ; Barciszewska, Anna-Maria (Author) ; Kriaučiūnienė, Roma (Author) ; Jakavonytė-Akstinienė, Agnė (Author) ; Napiwodzka, Karolina (Author) ; Mazur, Paweł (Author) ; Klimenko, Marina (Author) ; Owen, Clara (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Linköping Univ. Electronic Press 2023
In: De Ethica
Year: 2023, Volume: 7, Issue: 2, Pages: 3-27
Further subjects:B toxic sociomoral atmosphere
B Moral Distress
B Resiliency
B SARS-CoV-2 pandemic
B differences in levels of moral distress between Polish and Lithuanian medical workers
B healthcare ecology
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Summary:The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has transgressed biomedical categories. According to Horton, it turned out to be a 'syndrome' that infected virtually all spheres of social life. The pandemic has created toxic social atmosphere highly unfavorable to clinical and clinic-ethical decision making. Constraints and pressures related to micro-, meso-, exo- and macro-environments framing doctors, nurses, and medical students in training were identified. These factors exacerbated moral distress (moral injury) amongst clinicians. In a joint Polish-Lithuanian project (IDUB 2020-2022) we examined predictors of moral distress in pandemic clinical contexts. A survey-based, real-time, correlational and comparative study was conducted in Poland and Lithuania after the first year of pandemic with N=227 participants. Unexpected differences on regular and pandemic-type moral distress levels were found between the two national samples. Polish participants showed significantly higher moral distress levels than their Lithuanian counterparts. The following article discusses these findings and recommends the reinforcement of resilient medical decision making.
ISSN:2001-8819
Contains:Enthalten in: De Ethica
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3384/de-ethica.2001-8819.23723