Moral distress and resilience in the occupational therapy workplace

Abstract

Healthcare professionals are inherently vulnerable to moral distress due to their frequentwork with persons who are suffering or in crisis, in combination with the strong empathic orientationthat underpins the very act of care giving. When accompanied by high workloads, deficienciesin management practices such as low recognition, lack of work autonomy, and/or insufficientopportunity for growth and development, persons in caring professions are at an even higher risk ofmoral distress. There is evidence that professional resilience is effective in mitigating workplace stress.Successful individual-management of moral distress requires attention to the broader institutionalconditions under which these difficulties arise. This paper presents findings from 79 occupationaltherapists in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada, who participated in a survey of moral distress andresilience. On a standardized measure of resiliency their scores fell at the lower end of normal. On astandardized measure of moral distress, the highest levels involved issues of: time to do the jobproperly, deteriorated quality of care, insensitive co-workers, and unrealistic expectations from others.Nearly 50% reported that they had considered leaving a position due to moral distress. The surveywas carried out with the goal of developing a teaching module that included education about moraldistress and recommendations for the enhancement of both individual resilience and the constructionof resiliency-promoting work environments.