COVID-19
Moral injury
Qualitative Interviews with Healthcare Workers Surrounding Their Experience of COVID-19 Related Moral Injury
Lay summary
- The purpose of this project is to explore workplace conditions and types of COVID-19-related events connected to moral injury (events that don’t align with or violate one’s moral or ethical beliefs and lead to important emotional responses) in healthcare workers. In addition, it aims to find out how healthcare workers psychologically respond to COVID-19-related moral injury. The project will also ask if there are factors that can protect healthcare workers from this type of moral injury. This information will be used to update the Guide to COVID-19-related moral injury in health care workers.
Scientific summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has created circumstances that involve ethically and morally challenging situations for healthcare workers (HCWs), which could result in moral injury (MI). With the breadth and scope of the pandemic, there is a need to better understand COVID-19-related MI in HCWs at different organizational levels within health care facilities. The purpose of this study is to understand and identify the specific circumstances of events, workplace factors, supports and psychological responses associated with COVID-19-related MI among direct and indirect HCWs. In-depth, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with four groups of HCWs who worked during COVID-19: 1) direct patient-related care, 2) indirect/supporting care, 3) administrative staff, and 4) students in a healthcare profession. The results of this study will improve knowledge on the experiences and factors that influence the development of MI, as well as the types of supports that can moderate MI.
