Disasters, Moral Injury, and Duty to Respond

Have you ever thought about the impact that repeatedly experiencing destruction and human suffering has on the people who respond to disasters? Although every person responds to traumatic events differently, being exposed to the mental trauma of an intense experience like a disaster has been correlated to increasing levels of depression, anxiety, and PTSD. While it is one thing for people who purposefully signed up as disaster responders and presumably understand that risk, what about the effects on people who did not sign up and just happened to be in jobs where they are, by default, disaster responders. By this I am talking about professionals like medical techs, residents, and nurses—people who happen to be in positions that require them to experience the suffering of others. Should we be warning new residents or medical or nursing students of the emotional and physical dangers that their future jobs may hold if they are called upon to respond to an event like… a pandemic? Today, Dr. Tom Kirsch, an emergency medicine doctor, who recently retired as the Director of the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, will talk to us about some of the topics that he is most passionate about: moral injury and duty to respond. We will discuss what obligation medical professionals have to place themselves and their families at risk of harm, and what some of the effects of those experiences can be.