Moral injury is a serious concern among first responders. Not only does moral injury occur with notable frequency among first response groups such as police, fire safety, and emergency medical personnel, but it also poses considerable mental health challenges. Despite a recent explosion of research on moral injury, the literature would benefit from a systematic investigation of how first responders describe their experiences in their own words. We conducted semistructured interviews with 36 graduates of a first responder trauma healing course.

Background

Moral distress (MD) and moral injury (MI) are related constructs describing the negative consequences of morally challenging stressors. Despite growing support for the clinical relevance of these constructs, ongoing challenges regarding measurement quality risk limiting research and clinical advances. This study summarizes the nature, quality, and utility of existing MD and MI scales, and provides recommendations for future use.

Method

There are times within health and social care settings where professionals ask recipients of services to make complex and life altering choices. How these choices are presented by professionals has a profound impact on the experience of those accessing services. These experiences pattern their subsequent understanding of and response to both services and the professionals working within them.

This study aimed to examine whether the exposure of grandmothers (G1s) pregnant with their daughters (G2s) to the harsh conditions of the First World War and the Great Depression influenced the perinatal outcomes of their grandchildren (G3s). We use the data on full-term live births in 1951–1953.