Moral distress is a frequent situation where health care providers should face. Please define and discuss a personal experience where you have faced Moral distress in your practice.

Moral distress in healthcare | Nursing homework help

Moral distress is an emotional conflict experienced by healthcare providers when their moral beliefs and obligations collide with institutional constraints, patient wishes, or government policies. It occurs when the provider feels that a correct approach to caring for a patient has been blocked by another source. A personal experience where I have faced moral distress in my practice was while working as a medical assistant in an outpatient clinic. Many of our patients were elderly and had limited financial resources, so they often could not afford necessary medications and care.

Unfortunately, due to bureaucratic obstacles and administrative delays, these patients would end up missing out on treatments vital to their wellbeing. The fact that there was nothing I could do in those situations caused me great frustration and moral distress; I felt helpless at times but also immensely guilty because I knew it was ultimately my responsibility as the patient’s advocate to ensure they received adequate care. It was heartbreaking seeing how many people had access denied them simply based on their socio-economic status – something which should never be used as a factor in determining health outcomes.