Instances of Moral Distress in Medical Education: Recognition and Approaches

The care of sick people is a moral issue. In a highly technological era, it risks becoming a matter of repairing unhealthy bodies by means of evidence-based strategies, neglecting the human component. To teach these issues has become a challenge and ignoring it has important consequences. Andrew Jameton described moral distress in medicine in 1984 as the negative feelings that arise when one feels compelled to act against what one considers morally correct. It is usually due to external or organizational circumstances, but in the case of health careers students , residents or young professionals, it is hierarchies that often impose themselves as a relevant factor, affecting the moral decisions the students would make if the case that such hierarchies did not exist. The issue is complex, because long-term consequences have been described, which have to do with exhaustion, disenchantment with the chosen profession, low job satisfaction and therefore demotivation, depersonalization and moral scars. The latter is a topic currently on the rise in the literature, probably motivated by post COVID-19 era. This text will emphasize the need to address moral distress in medical education, and will try to show some strategies to address it.