Addressing Healthcare Provider Moral Resilience in Global Context: Insights From an International Workshop

Moral distress in healthcare is well documented, yet constructive strategies to address it remain underexplored. Moral resilience, defined by Rushton as the capacity to sustain or restore moral integrity in the face of adversity, offers a promising response. Interest in this concept is growing globally, as researchers translate and apply the Rushton Moral Resilience Scale across diverse cultural and healthcare contexts. This discussion paper aims to advance the field of moral resilience research by identifying international research priorities and fostering interdisciplinary and global dialogue. To support this aim, we convened a three-day international workshop involving 22 researchers and clinicians from countries in various world regions. Through pre-workshop dialogue sessions and in-person collaborative discussions, participants examined the current state of moral resilience research, identified perceived knowledge gaps, and explored conceptual understandings of moral resilience across diverse cultural, social, and economic settings. Workshop discussions highlighted resource scarcity as a shared source of moral adversity across both high- and low-income contexts, while also underscoring important contextual differences in how moral challenges are experienced and addressed. Participants identified the need for further conceptual clarification, context-sensitive approaches, and interdisciplinary collaboration to advance the field. Discussions also suggested that strengthening understanding of moral resilience may help inform efforts to foster supportive workplaces, sustain moral integrity, and support ethical healthcare practice. To facilitate ongoing international collaboration, the Global Moral Resilience and Ethical Practice Collaboratory (G-MoRE) was established as a global community of practice dedicated to shared learning, resource dissemination, scholarly exchange, and future collaborative research on moral resilience.