Moral distress occurs when a clinician knows the morally supportable action to take, but is constrained from doing so as a result of policy, law, cultural norms, or other external forces.  Over time, residual distress can create detachment, anger, sadness, and a feeling of helplessness in clinical professionals.  Much literature is focused on the concept of building resiliency so that distress does not lead to burnout, but resiliency may not be the answer.  Join this interactive session to gain additional strategies and explore how your own inherent compassion can serve you and your patients in a different manner than building resilience.  We will work together to answer the question often asked: "Why do I feel so bad about something I love so much?"

Introducing Dr. Apple

Rebekah Apple is the director of the Master of Medical Management program at Carnegie Mellon University and a medical ethicist for four UPMC hospitals.  She is responsible for the direction and strategy refinement for a degree program for physicians and has served as health care advisor, educator and ethicist for over twenty years in academic, clinical, and association environments.

Apple currently teaches Ethical Analysis, Organizational Ethics, as well as AI, Ethics and Humanity at Carnegie Mellon University. She also teaches bioethics to first-and third-year medical students at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.  She is also a member of the Consortium Ethics Program at the University of Pittsburgh.

Apple holds a Masters in Bioethics from the University of South Florida and a doctorate in Health Science from A.T. Still University.