TY - JOUR
T1 - Agent-Regret in Healthcare
AU - Enck, Gavin
AU - Condley, Beth
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - For healthcare professionals and organizations, there is an emphasis on addressing moral distress and compassion fatigue among clinicians. While addressing these issues is vital, this paper suggests that the philosophical concept of agent-regret is a relevant but overlooked issue in healthcare. To experience agent-regret is to regret your harmful but not wrongful actions. This person’s action results in someone being killed or significantly injured, but it was ethically faultless. Despite being faultless, agent-regret is an emotional response concerning one’s agency in a situation that results in death or significant harm. In healthcare, many clinicians are likely to experience regret for faultless actions that significantly harm or cause the death of a patient. The recognition of agent-regret in healthcare is significant because it differs, conceptually and practically, from moral distress and compassion fatigue. Building on the work of Wojtowicz (2022), we should strive to understand clinicians’ agent-regret by recognizing their agency in the situation, not lessening or removing it.
AB - For healthcare professionals and organizations, there is an emphasis on addressing moral distress and compassion fatigue among clinicians. While addressing these issues is vital, this paper suggests that the philosophical concept of agent-regret is a relevant but overlooked issue in healthcare. To experience agent-regret is to regret your harmful but not wrongful actions. This person’s action results in someone being killed or significantly injured, but it was ethically faultless. Despite being faultless, agent-regret is an emotional response concerning one’s agency in a situation that results in death or significant harm. In healthcare, many clinicians are likely to experience regret for faultless actions that significantly harm or cause the death of a patient. The recognition of agent-regret in healthcare is significant because it differs, conceptually and practically, from moral distress and compassion fatigue. Building on the work of Wojtowicz (2022), we should strive to understand clinicians’ agent-regret by recognizing their agency in the situation, not lessening or removing it.
KW - agent-regret
KW - compassion fatigue
KW - ethics
KW - Moral distress
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U2 - 10.1080/15265161.2023.2276166
DO - 10.1080/15265161.2023.2276166
M3 - Article
C2 - 37962933
AN - SCOPUS:85176937715
SN - 1526-5161
JO - American Journal of Bioethics
JF - American Journal of Bioethics
ER -