RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Towards collective moral resilience: the potential of communities of practice during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond
JF Journal of Medical Ethics
JO J Med Ethics
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics
SP medethics-2020-106764
DO 10.1136/medethics-2020-106764
A1 Janet Delgado
A1 Serena Siow
A1 Janet de Groot
A1 Brienne McLane
A1 Margot Hedlin
YR 2021
UL http://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2021/03/23/medethics-2020-106764.abstract
AB This paper proposes communities of practice (CoP) as a process to build moral resilience in healthcare settings. We introduce the starting point of moral distress that arises from ethical challenges when actions of the healthcare professional are constrained. We examine how situations such as the current COVID-19 pandemic can exponentially increase moral distress in healthcare professionals. Then, we explore how moral resilience can help cope with moral distress. We propose the term collective moral resilience to capture the shared capacity arising from mutual engagement and dialogue in group settings, towards responding to individual moral distress and towards building an ethical practice environment. Finally, we look at CoPs in healthcare and explore how these group experiences can be used to build collective moral resilience.