Citation

Smith S, Kuipers J. Disaster Med. Public Health Prep. 2023; 17: e373.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Publisher Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/dmp.2022.64

PMID

37039424

Abstract

Historically, natural and manmade disasters create many victims and impose pressures on health-care infrastructure and staff; potentially hampering the provision of patient care and overloading clinician capacity. Throughout the course of history, clinicians have performed heroics to work well above their required duty, despite limitations, even putting their own health and safety at risk. In times when clinicians needed to either physically abandon patients or consider abandoning active treatment, we have seen extreme hesitancy to do so, fearing that they may be giving up too soon, that undue harm may come to patients, or even feeling unsure of legal or moral burdens that may ensue. In times when clinicians are placed in this unimaginable position, feeling isolated and overwhelmed, it is essential that they be supported and provided with resources to standardize decision-making.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; *Disasters; Morals