Narrative Symposium: The Many Faces of Moral Distress Among Clinicians
Edited by Cynda Hylton Rushton, PhD, RN, F.A.A.N. and
Renee Boss, MD, MHS
Narrative
Inquiry in Bioethics will publish an issue devoted to personal stories from clinicians
regarding situations that cause moral distress and how they have responded to
them. Moral distress arises when professionals find that they are unable to act
in accordance with their moral convictions. The focus of this inquiry is on the personal and professional short-
and long-term impact of moral distress and the ways that clinicians respond to
and make meaning from that distress. Appropriate
contributors might include nurses,
physicians, social workers, nursing assistants, clinical ethicists, occupational
and physical therapists, and professionals in training. We want true,
personal stories in a form that is easy to read.
In writing your story, you might want to
think about:
- Which specific clinical situations give rise to moral distress? Why?
- How do you experience moral distress--physically, psychologically, socially, or spiritually?
- How do you deal with moral distress? In past distressing situations...
- Did you take actions that allowed you to uphold your deepest values?
- What conditions within yourself the people involved, and the external environment allowed you to do this?
- How did you make sense of the situation?
- What have been the short or long term consequences?
- Have you ever been professionally disciplined for acting upon your moral conviction?
- How has moral distress affected your job performance or your commitment to your job?
- What has been left undone or been the residual impact?
- How would you change the system (e.g., policies, hierarchies, process) to alleviate moral distress within your position? Do you think it can be alleviated, or is it inevitable?
You
do not need to address all of these questions—write on the issues that you
think are most important to share with others. You do not need to be a writer,
just tell your story in your own words. We plan to publish 12 stories (800 –
2000 words) on this topic. Additional stories may be published as online-only
supplemental material. We also publish two to four commentary articles that
discuss the stories in the journal.
If you
are interested in submitting a story, we ask you first to submit a 300-word proposal—a short description of the story you want to tell. Please include a statement
about what type of clinician you are and what kind of environment you work in
(no institutional names are needed). Inquiries or proposals
should be sent to the editorial office via email: narrativebioethics@gmail.com. We will give preference to story proposals received by Oct 31st. For more information about the
journal Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics,
the guidelines for authors, and privacy policies, visit our webpage with Johns
Hopkins University Press at: http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/narrative_inquiry_in_bioethics/guidelines.html
