David Alfandre, MD, MSPH

A central objective of addressing moral distress is to permit clinicians to effectively perform their professional functions and thus better help patients.

Addressing moral distress means not just obtaining ethics consultation as needed but also dealing with the feeling of powerlessness that often accompanies it.

Ethics consultants begin by identifying and clarifying the conflict to ensure it is related to ethics.

Surrogate decision makers for a patient are obligated to make health care decisions based on what the patient would have wanted if it is known.

Patients trust that what they tell their doctors will remain confidential, but under certain specific circumstances, the doctors may be obligated to breach that trust.

When patients are able to articulate their beliefs, it can help them move from making what may have been an unconscious choice into a conscious one.

Equality assures that everyone receives the same thing, but equity assures that everyone gets what they need.

Ethics asks us to critically reflect on our judgments to determine the right thing to do.

For many health care professionals, successfully managing uncertainty means recognizing that surety is complicated and illusory and knowledge is iterative and provisional rather than definitive.

Whatever strategy you employ to encourage vaccinations, it is important to be respectful and empathize with your patient’s concerns and perspectives.