Let's Talk About Ethics: Addressing Ethical Tensions and Building Moral Resilience in the Occupational Therapy Profession.

Abstract

Health professionals across all care delivery settings, including occupational therapy practitioners, are experiencing high levels of moral distress. The mental, emotional, and physical consequences of unresolved moral distress are resulting in burnout, decreased quality of care, and poor patient outcomes. Moral resilience is a teachable and learnable skill that can nullify some of the adverse consequences of moral distress. To ensure quality care outcomes and improve the well-being of individual occupational therapy practitioners and the profession, it is essential that occupational therapy practitioners be provided with the education, training, resources, and strategies needed to address moral distress, foster moral resilience, and cultivate the skills necessary to cope with ethical tensions. In this column, we call the profession to action to address the phenomenon of moral distress as it relates to occupational therapy practitioner well-being. We also discuss resources and strategies for addressing ethical tensions and building moral resilience in occupational therapy practice.