Discussion Guide for the Hua Article

Moral distress is a negative psychological response related to perceived or actual lack of agency in morally charged situations. For example, clinicians may experience moral distress when providing care antithetical to their personal belief systems and professional values. Moral distress exacerbates clinicians’ burnout, job dissatisfaction, and work attrition—all of which may compromise safe and effective patient care. High levels of moral distress are commonly reported in critical care environments during the provision of life-sustaining interventions; however, little is known about the prevalence of moral distress among clinicians providing care for patients undergoing mechanical circulatory support (MCS). Mechanical circulatory support, which includes both left and right ventricular assist devices as well as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, continues to expand in therapeutic scope and lengthen patients’ life spans. Yet MCS complications, such as cerebrovascular events, bleeding, and infection, can limit MCS’s prognostic utility and compromise the patient’s quality of life. Much like life-sustaining...