Moral distress experienced by healthcare workers in COVID-19 triage centers, Blumenau-SC, 2021

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted new ethical problems that trigger moral distress in daily healthcare work that deserve to be addressed in addition to being a serious public health problem. The aim is to understand the experience of moral distress by healthcare workers when carrying out their work to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in triage centers in the microregion of Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Brazil. This is a qualitative study carried out with 31 healthcare workers through virtual interviews during the pandemic. Content analysis was carried out with the help of ATLAS-ti software. Based on Wilkinson’s framework, the analysis revealed that the moral distress of these workers was constituted by the dimensions of the experience and effect. In experience, the main threats to moral integrity were moral harassment and moral impediment, in addition to other reasons that lead to moral distress. As an effect of this process, feelings were experienced that brought physical and psychological consequences of moral anguish and ineffective coping strategies. The study made it possible to understand the process of experiencing moral distress, indicating to moral deliberation as a coping strategy.