Beyond burnout: moral injury and emotional resilience among emergency clinicians

Emergency medicine represents the moral front line of the NHS, where the promise to treat anyone at any time and with any condition is being increasingly challenged by chronic overcrowding, capacity deficits and systemic strain. In these circumstances, clinician distress - traditionally labelled as burnout - is increasingly leading to moral injury, reflecting the psychological and ethical harm that can occur when healthcare professionals cannot act in accordance with their values. This article discusses moral injury as a central hazard of UK emergency practice. The author discusses how developing moral resilience requires systemic change, including measures such as protected reflection time, peer support networks and compassionate leadership.