AN ETHICAL APPROACH TO MORAL DISTRESS DURING COVID-19 IN NEW YORK

Presidential Inauguration Celebration Week Symposia

The initial surge of COVID19 patients in New York, created a surge of unprecedented numbers in the largest integrated hospital system of the New York City and surrounding Long Island region. Due to innovation and clinician ingenuity ventilator allocation had an easier solution than alleviating the moral distress of overworked and understaffed clinicians. The need for ethicists to support and aid clinicians in the discernment and need for escalation for scarce ICU resources and personnel was key. The transition from an allocation strategy of ventilators organically occurred as rapidly as the surge of COVID19. The session focuses on the assessment algorithms and established decision aid calculators utilized by ethicists, nurses, physicians, public health workers and others. while balancing Academic faculty balanced their workload educating the next generation of clinicians while dealing with the moral distress. This panel will feature faculty who will share first-hand experiences regarding allocation of life sustaining therapy, lifting of legal constraints on scope of practice, transparent communication, and ethical moral support of clinicians, students and staff.

Session organizers: Renee McLeod-Sordjan, Professor of Nursing, Chair of Graduate Nursing Program; Mary Lemp, Assistant Professor of Nursing; Walter L. Markowitz, Assistant Professor of Health Professions.

Speakers:

Janet L. Dolgin, The Jack and Freda Dicker Distinguished Professor in Health Care Law and Professor of Law, Maurice A. Deane School of Law
Elyse Isopo, Assistant Professor of Graduate Nursing, The Hofstra Northwell School Of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies
Mary C. Lemp, Assistant Professor of Graduate Nursing, The Hofstra Northwell School Of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies
Renee McLeod-Sordjan, Vice Dean and Professor of Nursing and Chair of Graduate Nursing Program, The Hofstra Northwell School Of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies
Walter L. Markowitz, Assistant Professor of Health Professions, School of Health Professions & Human Services
Jerome Weiner, Faculty Council, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell