Potentially morally injurious events and moral injury symptoms in healthcare professionals: Age, work experience, moral reasoning style and work at a COVID-19 department as predictors.

Abstract

Background: Since the COVID-19 pandemic healthcare delivery systems have been facing ethically challenging situations. As a result, healthcare professionals might experience more potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs), which can lead to moral distress and even moral injury (MI). Since MI can have negative consequences for mental health, it is important to gain more knowledge about the extent to which healthcare professionals experience PMIEs and MI symptoms and to gain more insight in possible predicting factors, so that we can optimize treatment and prevention methods. Design: A cross-sectional research design was used. The first goal was to examine to what extent healthcare professionals (N=72) are exposed to PMIEs and have MI as a consequence in comparison to a control group (N=75). The second goal was to examine if age, work experience, work at a COVID-19 department and moral reasoning style are predictors for the amount of PMIEs and MI symptoms experienced by healthcare professionals. Results: Healthcare professionals did not experience significantly more PMIEs and MI symptoms than the control group. The control group experienced significantly more MI symptoms than the healthcare professionals. Age, work experience, work at a COVID-19 department and moral reasoning style were not significant predictors for the amount of experienced PMIEs and the level of MI symptoms among healthcare professionals. Discussion: Strengths of this research are the large sample size and the usage of a control group. A limitation of this study is the substantial length of the survey. A suggestion for future research is examining protective factors.