Reframing the Conversation Around Physician Burnout and Moral Injury: “We’re Not Suffering From a Yoga Deficiency”

Vaughn, John; Mantri, Sneha; Jooste, Karen; Quaranta, Brian P.; Lawson, Jennifer M

doi:10.7812/tpp/21.005

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Our data reveal that healthcare worker distress is felt across all roles within the healthcare profession; it is not limited to clinical care providers. This is congruent to a burnout effect noted in administrative staff prepandemic (Mantri et al, 2021a). This offers strong support for systemic change to address these harms (Day et al, 2022; Dean et al, 2019, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Prevalence of Moral Injury, Burnout, Anxiety, and Depression in Healthcare Workers 2 Years in to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Lennon,

Parascando,

Talbot

et al. 2023

J Nerv Ment Dis

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COVID-19 has led to marked increases in healthcare worker distress. Studies of these phenomena are often limited to a particular element of distress or a specific subset of healthcare workers. We administered the Moral Injury Symptom Scale for Healthcare Professionals, Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 via online survey to 17,000 employees of a large academic medical center between December 2021 and February 2022. A total of 1945 participants completed the survey. Across all roles, the prevalence of moral injury, burnout, depression, and anxiety were 40.9%, 35.3%–60.6%, 25.4%, and 24.8%, respectively. Furthermore, 8.1% had been bothered by thoughts that they would be better off dead or of hurting themselves for “several days” or more frequently. Healthcare workers across all roles and practice settings are experiencing unsustainable levels of distress, with 1 in 12 regularly experiencing thoughts of self-harm.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Prevalence of Moral Injury, Burnout, Anxiety, and Depression in Healthcare Workers 2 Years in to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Lennon,

Parascando,

Talbot

et al. 2023

J Nerv Ment Dis

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“…Early in the pandemic, mindfulness-based interventions were associated with many beneficial impacts, such as reduced loneliness, depression, stress, and anxiety [2]. However, the same interventions for inner transformation were also found to worsen distress by treating conditions such as burnout as a symptom of individual weakness or mindlessness, as opposed to a moral injury sustained by exposure to systemic harms [50][51][52][53]. Recognising the increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) compounding sustainability challenges [54,55], it is imperative that approaches to inner and outer transformation be synergetic.…”

Section: Background: Mindfulness and Inner Transformations For Sustai...mentioning

confidence: 99%

How Do Mindfulness Offerings Support Inner–Outer Sustainability Progress? A Sustainability Assessment of Online Mindfulness Interventions

Cooper

Gibson

2023

Challenges

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While there is growing optimism for inner transformations to catalyse systemic shifts towards more sustainable ways of being, no study so far has attempted to assess how well current interventions for inner development address core requirements for collective wellbeing. In this article, we apply a novel assessment framework to examine how mindfulness-based interventions address inner and outer sustainability criteria during a global health emergency. This inquiry informs a growing field of study concerned with leveraging inner transformations for systemic shifts towards sustainability progress. Using three prominent online mindfulness-based offerings as a case study, we demonstrate that mindfulness-based interventions have a broad range of potential desirable to detrimental implications for social and biophysical systems. We conclude by discussing how normative conceptions of inner interventions might be contextualised anew to effectively support more viable, just, and inclusive transformations towards long-term viability.

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“…This is why typical support instruments such as coaching, psychotherapy, and yoga are often insufficient to meet the problem. [8][9][10] Having identified the phenomenon of orientational distress, we developed a comprehensive approach to address it, and distilled this theory into 3 basic elements, or toolkit. The Enhancing Life toolkit 11 includes descriptions of:…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is why typical support instruments such as coaching, psychotherapy, and yoga are often insufficient to meet the problem. 8–10…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Enhancing Life Research Laboratory: Tools for Addressing Orientational Distress in the Medical Profession

Thomas¹,

Bigger²,

Kim³

et al. 2023

Academic Medicine

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PurposeTo explore distress in the medical profession and how it was highlighted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The term "orientational distress" was developed to name the experience of a breakdown in the patterns of moral self-understanding and one's capacity to navigate professional responsibilities. MethodThe Enhancing Life Research Laboratory at the University of Chicago convened a 5-session online workshop (total 10 hours, May-June 2021) to explore orientational distress and to promote collaboration between academics and physicians. Sixteen participants from Canada, Germany, Israel, and the United States engaged in discussions of the conceptual framework and toolkit to address orientational distress within institutional settings. The tools included 5 dimensions of life, 12 dynamics of life, and the role of counterworlds. Follow-up narrative interviews were transcribed and coded using a consensus-based iterative process. ResultsParticipants reported that the concept of orientational distress helped explain their professional experiences better than burnout or moral distress. Moreover, participants strongly endorsed the project's supporting thesis that collaborative work on orientational distress and the tools provided in the research laboratory had a specific intrinsic value and provided benefits not found in other support instruments. ConclusionsOrientational distress compromises medical professionals and threatens the medical system. Next steps include the dissemination of materials from the Enhancing Life Research Laboratory to more medical professionals and medical schools. In contrast to burnout and moral injury, the concept of orientational distress may better enable clinicians to understand and more fruitfully navigate the challenges of their professional situations.

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Reframing the Conversation Around Physician Burnout and Moral Injury: “We’re Not Suffering From a Yoga Deficiency”

Cited by 7 publications

References 16 publications

Prevalence of Moral Injury, Burnout, Anxiety, and Depression in Healthcare Workers 2 Years in to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Prevalence of Moral Injury, Burnout, Anxiety, and Depression in Healthcare Workers 2 Years in to the COVID-19 Pandemic

How Do Mindfulness Offerings Support Inner–Outer Sustainability Progress? A Sustainability Assessment of Online Mindfulness Interventions

The Enhancing Life Research Laboratory: Tools for Addressing Orientational Distress in the Medical Profession

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