Doctorate in Clinical Psychology: Main Research Portfolio

: 1) Help-seeking and experiences of support for mental health distress in doctors: a qualitative evidence synthesis ;2) Managers’ experiences of seeking support for staff members experiencing mental health difficulties: what are the barriers and facilitators? :3) Experiences of moral challenges in emergency medicine: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic illuminated the moral challenges of workingas a health professional in the NHS with evidence indicating that staff have beenexposed to an accumulation of events which may violate their moral code. The Emergency Department (ED) has been reported as one of the most intense and high-pressured environments to work within, where retention of staff is at crisis level. This study explored the experiences of senior doctors working within emergency medicineacross the UK.7Methods: Ten doctors working in emergency medicine (EM) took part in semi-structured interviews to explore their experience of moral transgressions. Doctors were initially recruited from the ED of one NHS hospital and then through social media.Data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.Findings: Three main experiential themes emerged from the data: ‘we can’t do ourjob’, ‘disconnected and disconnection’ and ‘unbearable weight of responsibility’.Accounts converged, yet also contrasted, around a sense of betrayal, damaged trust andrelational conflict.Conclusions: Unbearable workloads and frayed relations with leaders and colleaguesmay be contributing to EM doctors feeling neglected and alone. These findings support the growing research looking at moral injury in health professionals which indicatesexposure to institutional betrayal rather than self-transgressions.

Date of Award	11 Dec 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Jo Daniels (Supervisor)