Psychiatrist and trainee moral injury during the organisational long COVID of Australian acute psychiatric inpatient services.
Jeffrey C L LooiPaul A MaguireMeshary Khaled N AlotibyStephen AllisonPublished in: Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (2022)
Moral injuries arise from observing, causing or failing to prevent adverse outcomes that transgress core ethical and moral values. Potentially, morally injurious events (PMIEs) are more prevalent and potent while demand on acute hospitals is heightened with the emergence of highly infectious SARS-CoV-2-Omicron subvariants (BA.4 and BA.5). Acute hospital inpatient services were already facing extraordinary stresses in the context of increasingly depleted infrastructure and staffing related to the pandemic. These stresses have a high potential to be morally injurious. It is essential to immediately fund additional staff and resources and address workplace health and safety, to seek to arrest a spiral of moral injury and burnout amongst psychiatrists and trainees. We discuss recommended support strategies.
Keyphrases
- sars cov
- mental health
- healthcare
- liver failure
- respiratory failure
- coronavirus disease
- drug induced
- decision making
- aortic dissection
- acute care
- public health
- palliative care
- respiratory syndrome coronavirus
- hepatitis b virus
- health promotion
- intensive care unit
- risk assessment
- extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
- adverse drug
- cell cycle
- general practice
- long term care
- climate change