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Evaluation ViewAttendees 84

Academic and Research Skills

Career Development

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Public Health

Trainee
Session Type: Workshop

Advocating in Uncertain Times: Mitigating Moral Distress

Friday, April 25, 2025
4:00pm – 5:30pm HST
Location: Convention Center: 305
CE: 1.5

Disclosure(s):
Colleen K. Gutman, MD: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Tracey A. Wilkinson, MD, MPH: Bayer (Ongoing) (Products/Services: Research Support including clinical trials & the principal or named investigator); CooperSurgical (Ongoing) (Products/Services: Research Support including clinical trials & the principal or named investigator); Organon (Ongoing) (Products/Services: Research Support including clinical trials & the principal or named investigator)
Atsuko Koyama, MD, MPH: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Leonidas Panagiotakopoulos, MD: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.

Workshop Description: Pediatricians across the country may experience moral distress related to local and institutional social-political climates that restrict their patients' rights and autonomy, as well as their own rights and autonomy. State and federal legislation and judicial outcomes are increasingly affecting physicians' abilities to provide evidence-based, patient-centered care. For pediatricians in climates with greater restrictions on patient care and healthcare advocacy, moral distress can lead to feelings of isolation, depression, hopel essness, and contribute to burnout and professional dissatisfaction. In addition to fostering collaborative relationships among attendees, this highly interactive workshop will offer a novel toolkit based on existing frameworks (Desai A. et al, 2023) to support pediatricians and their trainees in developing resilience at the individual, interpersonal, and institutional level. In small groups, attendees will apply the toolkit to case scenarios related to moral distress encountered in medicine within the context of restrictive social-political climates. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss and apply strategies for mitigating moral distress that arises from the intersection of local/federal policies and clinical medicine, medical education, research, and advocacy.

Learning Objectives:

  • Define moral distress and provide at least two examples of how current social-political climates contribute to moral distress, as measured by a post-session audience poll.
  • Understand a toolkit and propose peer connections and ways to participate in two activities that foster allyship among individuals from diverse social-political environments as evidenced by a report-back session.
  • Apply at least three strategies from the toolkit to interrupt moral distress in a simulated case study done in a group activity.