Moral distress in medical residents from Chilean universities

Abstract

Moral distress, defined as the suffering a person experiences when forced to actions or omissions that
contradict their values, has been described in all medical professions and related training, associated
with consequences such as depersonalization in care, low motivation at work, vocational questioning,
and in connection with burnout. In Chile, moral distress has been scarcely researched, and even less
in medical students. This is an observational, descriptive and mixed research with medical residents
from four universities in Chile using an electronically distributed questionnaire to study its frequency
and main triggering factors. Participants included 56 students. The results show transversal occurrence
of moral distress in students from the researched universities. The difficulty in obtaining informed
consent from patients is noted as the main moral distress source. The results provide useful knowledge
for designing educational programs that address moral distress and its main associated sources.