Ethics in Conflict: Moral Distress as a Root Cause of Burnout

Excerpt

In this commentary, we argue that moral distress and professional ethical dissonance are root causes of burnout; the way forward requires attention to the social and ethical dimensions of professional practice. The Physician’s Charter on Medical Professionalism, a charter for the new millennium written in 2002 through a partnership between the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American College of Physicians, and the European Federation of Internal Medicine, identified several threats to physician professionalism including technology, market forces, healthcare system strain, and broader sociological shifts in the role of physicians in society.¹ The Charter described how these factors challenged physicians’ ability to adhere to the values of professionalism. …