This week's blog is about a special kind of stress that many emergency service workers face called “moral distress.” According to Jameton, 1984 moral distress is the result of knowing the right action to take, but being restrained from taking it. This situation differs from a dilemma where there may be one or two opposing ethical actions.
Moral distress is when the most suitable ethical action is clear, but the individuals are unable to take steps to address it. This block may be legislative or policy restrictions, resources, budgets, power dynamics or even personality differences between individuals within a workplace.
This concept of moral distress has recently been highlighted by a workplace accident here on the Gold Coast. Last week, four people died on a Dreamworld water ride. When I first heard the news and as rumours started to fly around about management cutting corners, all I could think of was the employees. They will know what discussions have occurred, what requests for repairs have been refused, what safety concerns have been raised previously and what the organisational sentiment is about guest safety.
For the sake of the employees and the sake of the family, I hope that this was a fluke accident and that all reasonable steps were taken to avoid this. If they haven’t though, these are the individuals who will need additional support right now as the likelihood for moral distress would have been high previously and would just be escalating at this point if individual and organisational values did not align.
Research shows that a culture of emotional and physical safety comes straight from the top and recently, we are starting to hear more about CEO wages being linked to wellness KPIs. You can read the full Huffington Post article here.
Situations like this really highlight why leaders salaries and emotional wellbeing should be connected. Ultimately, daily decisions about resources, priorities, decision to act, or decisions not to act, which play out at every level of the organisation and impact on staff emotional wellbeing, including the emergency services.
So, how can moral distress be countered?
As a kinesiologist, I appreciate how important it is to go through a cycle of expressing, processing, sharing, and actioning. Each stage of the process is important as it allows emotions to be released and new emotions can form to create momentum for a change.
Step 1. Express
Express your fears, concerns and frustration in a healthy way to someone. For you, it could mean a close friend, a partner, a therapist or your god, the universe or yourself. If there are confidentiality concerns about your matter, your options are limited and maybe a journal is a good way, or someone with the appropriate level of cultural and organisational understanding, like me.
Note: You can find out about my services on the website or book now for a 30 minute FREE discovery session.
Step 2. Process
Once the raw emotions have been released, you can start processing the information from a range of new standpoints. Having someone to talk these issues through, can be invaluable for a new (and possibly fairer) perspective of who is ultimately responsible and what systematic or legislative blocks are present in this situation. Doing so will help reframe or remove any additional guilt you could be feeling around the issue.
Step 3. Share
Sharing with an appropriately informed community, who hold similar values, can be invaluable to recognising your role and your possible next steps in this situation. Finding out who else has been in this position and feels the same way is reassuring, and helps you recognise the value of your ethical barometer.
Step 4. Action
Recognising that this issue could be systemic, legislative or cultural can be de-motivating at first, but making a start to improve the situation, even on a micro level will be possible as a result of the previous steps. Perhaps a coffee with a colleague will inspire a new solution that could be implemented as a trial, perhaps a minor policy change can help, perhaps an internal training session on the issue will help dispel any myths about that situation. It may not resolve the issue immediately, but being part of the change movement can help you focus on the possibilities.
I trust that this blog post can help normalise some of the emotions that you (or someone you know) are feeling and offer some productive action steps for addressing these concerns.
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