Moral Distress and Suffering of Genetics Professionals

Genetic service providers interact with patients who are experiencing profoundly personal and emotional life events. Many interactions occur at the time of diagnosis of a serious or life-threatening disorder in a fetus, child or adult. Other interactions occur over the course of providing on-going care to genetically affected individuals, including care rendered near the end of life. In a recent NIH workshop on end-of-life-issues in genetic disorders, there was consensus that genetic service providers need to find ways to talk about end-of life issues with their patients, and help patients deal with uncertainty. It is likely that genetic service providers experience considerable grief, moral distress and threats to integrity in the course of caring for individuals and families affected by, or at increased risk of, serious genetic disease. There is even some evidence that moral distress can lead to professional burnout. Yet this distress has rarely been acknowledged or described in the literature, nor have most genetic service providers received adequate training in any of these areas. The proposed study will examine, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the nature, extent, sources and consequences of distress among different types of genetic service providers, and develop recommendations regarding the sort of intervention that might be developed to help providers deal with their distress. Under specific aim 1 (SA1), we will conduct 3 focus groups, 1 of genetic counselors, 1 of genetic nurses and 1 of clinical geneticists, to explore the nature of distress and suffering (moral distress, grief, threats to integrity, uncertainty) that they have experienced in their work. Under SA2, we will administer a questionnaire to a larger sample (N=300) of genetic service providers (100 of each type) who care for individuals with potentially life threatening conditions in prenatal, pediatric and adult genetics clinics, and conduct in-depth telephone interviews of 90 questionnaire respondents (30 of each type) to determine the variability in sources and extent of distress among different types of genetic service providers, the consequences of the distress experienced by each and the kind of intervention that they would find most useful. Under SA3, based on previous input as well as input from one mixed focus group, we will develop recommendations for an intervention to reduce distress experienced by genetic service providers. Such an intervention would be aimed at renewing commitment to the profession and improving patient care.