Mitigating moral injury for palliative care clinicians

Mitigating moral injury for palliative care clinicians
Palliative Medicine Reports; by Anne G. Pereira, Mark Linzer, Leonard L. Berry; 2/23
Palliative care clinicians (PCCs) in the United States face the combination of increasing burnout and a growing need for their services based on demographic changes and an increasing burden of serious illness... We propose three solutions to address moral distress and moral injury in PCCs to reduce burnout. These solutions are grounded in the dilemmas particular to palliative care and in best evidence: first, to create space for PCCs to confront moral challenges head-on; second, to integrate ethics consultations into care of some patients cared for by PCCs; and third, to reassess care models for PCCs. These approaches can mitigate burnout and thus address the growing gap in our ability to provide high-quality palliative care for those patients in need.