Moral Injury and Physician Burn out

[WayOutWestMom]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/too-many-tests-too-little-time-doctors-say-they-face-moral-injury-because-of-a-business-model-that-interferes-with-patient-care/2020/01/31/c00e9d58-3d3a-11ea-8872-5df698785a4e_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-hse%3Ahomepage%2Fcard-ans&itid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-hse%3Ahomepage%2Fcard-ans

Too many tests, too little time: Doctors say they face ‘moral injury’ because of a business model that interferes with patient care

…The term [moral injury}] comes from war: It was first used to explain why military veterans were not responding to standard treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Moral injury, as defined by researchers from veterans hospitals, refers to the emotional, physical and spiritual harm people feel after “perpetrating, failing to prevent, or bearing witness to acts that transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations.”

Psychiatrist Wendy Dean and surgeon Simon Talbot were the first to apply the term to health care. Both wrestled with symptoms of burnout themselves. They concluded that “moral injury” better described the root cause of their anguish: They knew how best to care for their patients but were blocked from doing so by systemic barriers related to the business side of health care.

…Dean said that response has come from clinicians across disciplines, who wrestle with what they consider barriers to quality care: insurance preauthorization, trouble making patient referrals, endless clicking on electronic health records.