How doctors and nurses cope with 'moral distress'

Caring for patients is tough, particularly when you can't do what you think is ethically appropriate due to competing demands of insurers, lawyers, patients' families and administrators. The stress of not acting on your better impulses creates what New York Times columnist Dr. Pauline Chen dubs "moral distress." This distressing state leads to burnout quickly. In fact, one study found that 15 percent of nurses left their jobs for this reason, she notes. Article