All the King’s Horses and All the King’s Men: Falling Into Moral Injury, During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Health care providers who experienced giving care or abbreviating those services, during the COVID-19 pandemic, risked experiencing a sense of moral injury. Moral injury is a term to describe incidents where a health care provider knows the right thing to do, but constraints make it exceedingly difficult or impossible to execute the right course of action. These incidents likely also were present for sonographers and vascular technologists, and it is vital that these compromises for patients are recognized, and healing strategies offered to those suffering from moral injury. Some suggestions for treatment of moral injury are to recognize these experiences, seek solutions, provide empathy for patients and resources for health care providers. It may also be beneficial to allow employees and employers to forgive the mistakes made during the pandemic and focus on solutions to prevent future incidents of moral injury.