Moral Distress in the Health Professions

Dr. Ulrich is a nurse-bioethicist and currently holds the Lillian S. Brunner Chair at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing with a secondary appointment in the School of Medicine, Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy.  Dr. Ulrich’s normative and empirical bioethics work focuses on ethical issues in clinical practice and research.  These studies examine the everyday ethical issues that healthcare clinicians encounter in their clinical practice, including concerns ranging from informed consent to end-of-life in the care of patients and their families.  Her studies also examine how patients consider the benefits and risks of research participation in cancer clinical trials and the factors that influence participation.  She has received federal funding and foundational grants for her research and has authored publications in medical, nursing, and bioethical journals.  She is an elected fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a global Salzburg Fellow. Christine Grady is a nurse-bioethicist who currently serves as the Chief of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, and formerly was a Commissioner on President Obama’s Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Her research contributions are both conceptual and empirical and are primarily in the ethics of clinical research, including informed consent, vulnerability, study design, recruitment, and international research ethics, as well as ethical issues faced by nurses and other health care providers. In addition to multiple publications in the biomedical literature, Dr. Grady has authored or edited several books. She is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and of the Hastings Center, and a senior research fellow at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics.

“This book presents, through the collaboration of a large group of academics and specialists in the medical sector, a great addition to the theoretical field … . The book presents, also, practical perspectives from workers in the field and the benefits from their experiences in setting out a comprehensive goal which is to improve both the quality of the workers’ medical work and to provide them with psychological comfort.” (Mohammad J. Thalgi, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, Vol. 23, 2020)“This collection fills a much-needed gap in the moral distress literature. It brings academic and bedside perspectives together in ways that are mutually informative, it highlights current points of consensus and disagreement on the concept of moral distress, and it identifies some possible ways forward, both for future research on moral distress and for strategies to address it.” (Jamie Carlin Watson, metapsychology online reviews, Vol. 24 (24), 2020)“This unique book discusses moral distress among nurses and other healthcare professionals. Case studies are used to describe situations in which healthcare providers experience moral distress. … This is a unique book on the concept of moral distress in nursing and other healthcare professions. It would be a good resource for the classroom setting or for healthcare professionals to add to their libraries.” (Michalene A. King, Doody's Book Reviews, April, 2018)

• Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2.  What We Know about Moral Distress.- Chapter 3.  Health Care Professional Narratives on Moral Distress: Disciplinary Perspectives.- Chapter 4. A Broader Understanding of Moral Distress.- Chapter 5. Sources of Moral Distress.- Chapter 6.  Building Compassionate Environments.- Chapter 7.  Moral Distress Research Agenda.- Chapter 8.  International Perspectives on Moral Distress.- Chapter 9.  Reflections on Moral Distress and Moral Success