Addressing Moral Distress and Burnout in Oncology

Lara Traeger, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, discusses recommendations from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) for coping with moral distress and burnout.

ASCO recently held a roundtable on this topic of burnout and moral distress, says Trager. The findings from the roundtable were published and showed that things can be improved if the topic was more integrated into the infrastructure of every practice. ASCO also suggests establishing metrics for success in practices to boost morale.

Trager shares recommendations based on her own expertise as well, in relation to promoting and supporting best practices for clinician well-being by highlighting and awarding their efforts.