Moral Distress and Moral Injury in Military Healthcare Clinicians: A Scoping Review

Healthcare clinicians are often at risk of psychological distress due to the nature of their occupation. Military healthcare providers are at risk for additional psychological suffering related to unique moral and ethical situations encountered in military service. This scoping review identifies key characteristics of moral distress and moral injury and how these concepts relate to the military healthcare clinician who is both a care provider and service member.

A scoping review of moral distress and moral injury literature as relates to the military healthcare clinician was conducted on the basis of the Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review framework. Databases searched included CINAHL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), PsycInfo, 2 U.S. Defense Department sources, conference papers index, and dissertation abstracts. Reference lists of all identified reports and articles were searched for additional studies.

A total of 573 articles, published between the years 2009 and 2021, were retrieved to include a portion of the COVID-19 pandemic period. One hundred articles met the inclusion criteria for the final full-text review and analysis.

This scoping review identified moral distress and moral injury literature to examine similarities, differences, and overlaps in the defining characteristics of the concepts and the associated implications for patients, healthcare clinicians, and organizations. This review included the unfolding influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on moral experiences in health care and the blurring of those lines between civilian and military healthcare clinicians. Future directions of moral injury and moral distress research, practice, and care are discussed.