A Duke University study shows that, amid COVID-19, US healthcare workers (HCWs) had similar rates of potential moral injury (PMI)—a type of trauma-induced wound to the psyche—as military combat veterans.

The study, published yesterday in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, surveyed 2,099 HCWs in 2020 and 2021 and 618 military veterans deployed to a combat zone after the Sep 11, 2001, US terrorist attacks about PMIs they may have experienced.

PMI is a distressing reaction to exposure to traumatic events that may have psychological, behavioral, social, and spiritual effects.

Depression, lower quality of life

Of the 618 veterans, 46.1% reported experiencing PMI induced by others' immoral actions, compared with 50.7% of HCWs, while 24.1% and 18.2%, respectively, reported being disturbed by violations of their own moral code.

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