At the EthicsLab, we actively engage in initiatives aimed at building moral resilience among local healthcare workers and medical students.
Situated within the Groote Schuur Hospital, a bustling tertiary hospital serving the broader population of Cape Town, South Africa, many of our colleagues navigate complex ethical dilemmas on a daily basis. Despite their expertise, not all situations can be resolved satisfactorily, which could lead to a sense of moral distress among healthcare providers. This distress arises from either knowing the right course of action but not being able to pursue it or being uncertain about the right thing to do. Research indicates that moral distress can have detrimental physical and mental health effects on individuals and can impact the efficiency and quality of healthcare delivery. A growing body of evidence links moral distress to burnout, job performance, patient care, and workplace attrition.
To address this issue, we seek to cultivate moral resilience to mitigate moral distress and ultimately promote well-being for healthcare workers. Moral resilience is defined as an individual's ability to maintain or restore their integrity in the face of moral adversity.
Clinical Ethics Forum
The EthicsLab regularly hosts critical conversations in the Clinical Ethics Forums. The forums are integral to our mission of fostering ethical resilience to address the increasing burden of moral distress.
This monthly, in-person forum offers a supportive and solution-oriented environment for healthcare workers and senior students to discuss ethical challenges they encounter in their practice.
For details on upcoming forums, see our events calendar and subscribe to our mailing list.
"Argue Better!" short course
Recognising the importance of critical thinking and moral reasoning in fostering moral resilience, the EthicsLab offers a UCT-accredited short course titled 'Argue Better!'
This online course aims to equip individuals who work in morally distressing environments with the skills to identify and advocate for ethical actions in difficult situations.
For upcoming course dates and information, including course fees and CPD points, visit the official course page on the faculty website.
UCT Faculty of Health Sciences Stimulus Grant
Moral distress is increasingly recognised as the primary occupational health hazard for clinicians working in South Africa (Hoare 2022). In 2024, Dr Heidi Matisonn was awarded a grant to develop, implement, and evaluate an educational and support tool to build ethical resilience amongst healthcare providers in Groote Schuur Hospital.
Drawing on a recognition of the role of community in supporting an individual’s wellbeing, the intervention signals a fundamental shift away from individualised support - where the pathology is placed on the healthcare providers themselves – to a collective one where we seek to build a community of practice in discussions about ethics.
By combining ethics education with collegial peer support sessions in which difficult conversations can take place in a psychologically safe environment, the aim of the project is to provide a unique and transformative experience for healthcare providers. To find out more about the study, please contact Dr Heidi Matisonn.
