A new learning resource, Staying Aligned: Ethics + DBT Skills for Moral Distress in Healthcare, is now available on the Ethical Practice Learning Resources intranet page. This resource was developed as one way to support healthcare workers in moments when ethical challenges feel overwhelming, emotional, or hard to navigate.
This learning resource combines clinical ethics approaches with Dialectical Behaviour Therapy skills as an option for healthcare workers to address workplace moral distress. The goal of this combined strategy is to address moral distress by staying grounded and act according to values and ethical principles during morally distressing care situations, while acknowledging real system-level constraints.
This resource may be helpful to:
- Think critically about an ethically challenging situation
- Manage workplace distress that arises when you feel conflicted or unsure if you should speak up
- Acknowledge the reality of system constraints, power imbalances, policy, or limited options
- Build capacity for ethical thinking and emotional grounding in the moment of a challenging decision
DBT skills may be able to complement other clinical ethics tools like the ethical decision-making framework to build capacity for ethical practice and professional integrity. However, it is important to recognize that DBT skills are personal support tools with no direct ability to resolve systemic injustice.
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Island Health's Ethics Service can help with challenging decisions where competing values or priorities make it difficult to decide the best way to care for a patient. Ethical practice is a shared responsibility.
For a consultation contact us: 1.866.995.3199 or EthicsMatters@islandhealth.ca. For learning resources visit our intranet page: Island Health Ethics