A central objective of addressing moral distress is to permit clinicians to effectively perform their professional functions and thus better help patients.
Addressing moral distress means not just obtaining ethics consultation as needed but also dealing with the feeling of powerlessness that often accompanies it.
Patients trust that what they tell their doctors will remain confidential, but under certain specific circumstances, the doctors may be obligated to breach that trust.
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored how easy it is for disreputable and non-authoritative sources to spread wrong and possibly dangerous medical information.