Dr. Wendy Dean introduced the term “Moral Injury” into the discussion of healthcare workers’ stress. Moral injury is when healthcare professionals are asked to violate their judgment in service to the financial needs of hospitals, insurers, and government thus making clinicians unable to provide high-quality care. Dr. Dean is the President and co-founder of The Moral Injury of Healthcare, a nonprofit organization addressing the crisis of clinician distress.
A psychiatrist by training, Dr. Dean left clinical medicine when generating revenue crowded out the patient-centered priorities in her practice. Her focus since has been on finding innovative ways to make medicine better for both patients and healthcare professionals — technologically, ethically, and systemically.
