Responding To Healthcare Workers Moral Injury, Mental Health And Well-Being Needs

WHEREAS, corporatization of the healthcare industry prioritizes profits over patient care, causing crushing patient loads and an inability to provide quality patient care for healthcare workers—nurses and advanced practice nurses, physicians and physician assistants, therapists, technicians and other personnel. Lean staffing and a transactional culture in healthcare are driving a crisis in healthcare workers’ mental health, causing burnout and moral injury; and

WHEREAS, the surgeon general has issued a call to action, noting that these problems are long-standing, not just a symptom of the pandemic. Post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, and acute stress disorder are the most common mental health conditions among healthcare workers. Research from before the pandemic shows that nurses, healthcare technicians and other healthcare workers are at significantly higher risk of death by suicide compared with other workers. Female nurses are two times more likely to die by suicide compared with other women, and female physicians are also at higher risk; and

WHEREAS, burnout, poor mental health days, harassment at work, and intent to quit rose from 2018 to 2022 among healthcare workers and was worse than for other essential workers and all other workers. Burnout impacted 46 percent of healthcare workers and 56 percent of registered nurses in 2022; and

WHEREAS, beyond burnout, many healthcare workers report symptoms of moral distress and moral injury. They feel profoundly betrayed by a healthcare system that violates their moral code and the standards of care they were educated to provide to patients. The healthcare system exploits healthcare workers’ dedication to their patients; and

WHEREAS, the toll of moral injury was tragically demonstrated by Tristin Kate Smith, a young registered nurse who wrote “A Letter to My Abuser” a few months before her death by suicide. Smith aptly compared the healthcare system to a domestic abuser, naming the exploitation and manipulation she experienced:

RESOLVED, that the AFT will continue to address the root causes of this crisis—healthcare corporatization and consolidation, the influence of private equity, and the downstream impacts on staffing and healthcare provision through organizing and the Code Red Campaign. We will continue to work with our healthcare affiliates to address staffing, mandatory overtime, workplace violence and other problematic working conditions through bargaining, legislation, and policymaking on the local, state and federal levels; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will support our members, locals and affiliates through training and resources intended to increase awareness, build locals’ capacity and assist in bargaining; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will continue efforts to inject workers’ voices and an accurate understanding of possible solutions that are needed to solve the problems into meaningful policymaking. The AFT will continue to engage with government and stakeholder organizations to address moral injury, mental health, and well-being; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will develop a task force with interdisciplinary perspectives to create a report on healthcare worker moral injury, mental health and well-being needs, including but not limited to contributions and causes, possible ways to address them, and work with the AFT to develop recommendations for bargaining and legislation.