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Description: Epidemiology of Healthcare Workforce Wellbeing Indicators The wellbeing of the healthcare workforce has been measured through variant constructs over time, such as, burnout, retention, job satisfaction, social support, compassion fatigue, and mental health indicators (Killian, 2008). In short, previous literature has strongly demonstrated that our healthcare workers are not doing well (Vagni et al., 2020; Dean et al., 2020). A pertinent report released right before the 2020 global pandemic that highlighted high levels of burnout amongst physicians and nurses (National Academies of Medicine, 2019), alongside high levels of mental health symptoms and diagnoses amongst these healthcare workers compared to the general population (Killian, 2008). Research has demonstrated that healthcare clinicians have been are exposed to twice the amount of trauma in healthcare settings than the general public (Bride, 2007). The continuous amounts of trauma endured in healthcare settings leads to both clinical and non-clinical adverse outcomes (Barnes et al., 2019). While the clinical and non-clinical workforce wellbeing indicators have been well researched amongst physician and nursing populations, a gap exists in understanding the ethical and moral consequences of trauma-exposure (Shay, 2014). Moral Injury Moral Injury is the betrayal of “what’s right”, by oneself someone in a position of power, in high stakes situations (Shay, 2014). The experience of moral injury first was discussed amongst the veteran population, describing complex scenarios in which veterans had to engage in morally conflicting behavior due to external powers (i.e. threat to safety or commander orders); thus leading to feelings of guilt and shame (Shay, 2014). More recently, scholars have transposed this understanding of moral injury to the field of healthcare, an environment with high rates of trauma-exposure (Griffin et al., 2019). Moral injury is based on the assumption that there is an exposure to a moral transgression, which results from a potentially morally injurious event (PMIE), a situation in which ethical dilemmas could lead to moral boundary breaking (Litz & Kerig, 2019). The exposure to a PMIE could result in feelings of guilt, shame, and internal confusion with oneself (Litz & Kerig, 2019; Shay, 2014). Moral injury amongst healthcare clinicians is a novel area of conversation (Mantri et al., 2020), one that emerged prior to the COVID19 global pandemic, and has become an urgent area of needed research since the pandemic (Williams, Brundage, & Williams, 2020). Scholars having been questioning the over labeling of burnout of healthcare clinicians (Ritchie, 2019). They recognize that clinicians are not solely burned out, rather they are experiencing complex ethics-related impacts, such as moral injury, from their work (Ritchie, 2019). The current U.S. healthcare system’s axes are balanced on power dynamics between the medical model, insurance companies, and capitalistic access to resources (Yeterian et al., 2019; Mantri et al., 2020). These power dynamics in combination with high stakes situations places healthcare clinicians particularly at risk for experiencing moral injury (Shay, 2014; Griffin et al., 2019). While prevention intervention would be key in reducing the rate of moral injury (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2015), there is currently not enough empirical evidence that describes the complex relationship between moral injury and wellbeing amongst healthcare clinicians. Thus, this literature review specifically strives to understand the effects of moral injury on wellbeing, so future research will have adequate foundational knowledge on moral injury and its outcomes to consider interventions or prevention strategies for moral injury.

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