Scientists of the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań and the Lithuanian University in Vilnius will investigate how medical services operate in conditions of moral panic during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Scientists will try to answer the question of how distress (prolonged stress) affects the work of medical services during a pandemic. For the purposes of the project, it was assumed that moral distress and panic arise when someone makes right and justified decisions in the light of the values and procedures of medical or clinical ethics, and yet various pressures, limitations and barriers in the normative environment try to force him to not do what is right and justified.
The factor that exacerbates moral distress among doctors during a pandemic is neither the deficit of personnel and equipment, nor the triage and the moral dilemma associated with the selection of patients. It is a toxic, normative and socio-moral atmosphere that a clinician “breathes” when trying to make decisions and actions for the benefit of the patient.
