Author
Praise for the book
2024 Webby/Anthem Award for Health - Book, Story or Feature
Using stories of physicians from across America, "If I Betray These Words" confronts the threat and broken promises of moral injury – what it is; where it comes from; how it manifests; and who’s fighting back against it.
"The book should be read not only by physicians, but also by other healthcare professionals and, perhaps more importantly, by people involved with the management of healthcare organizations.”
--Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine
"A brilliant, expansive book.”
--Samuel Shem, MD, DPhil, Professor in Medicine at NYU Medical School, author of The House of God and Man's 4th Best Hospital
"A manifesto for our times! Wendy Dean diagnoses the dangerous state of our healthcare system, illustrating the thumbscrews applied to medical professionals by their corporate overlords. By making it impossible to do the right thing for patients, the profit-hungry system casually gouges the moral fiber of healthcare workers, threatening patient safety. Luckily, Dean lays out a path forward. Required reading for all stakeholders in healthcare."
--Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, author of When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error
"A brilliantly conceived and executed masterpiece.”
--Thom Mayer, MD, Medical Director of the NFL Players Association
"I was viscerally moved by this book. Regardless of where you stand, you need to read this book. Trust me. I’m a doctor.”
-- Joseph Caravalho, Jr., MD, Major General, US Army (Retired), and President and CEO of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine
Wendy Dean offers a stunning portrayal of the corrosive effects of valuing profits over people. Medicine is sick and the situation more dire than most realize, but Dean’s examples of visionary leadership inspire hope for a healthier future. Written by the expert on moral injury in medicine, this book is a critical read for all in healthcare."
--Lydia Dugdale, MD, author of The Lost Art of Dying: Reviving Forgotten Wisdom, and Director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at Columbia University
Podcast Host
43cc
Moral Matters
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An honest, fun, irreverent, and deadly serious podcast series that exposes the truth about healthcare (with a shot to dull the pain). Hosts Wendy Dean, MD and Matt Ramsey, MD, take an in-depth look at medicine’s machinery tearing the patient-physician relationship apart and how we might stitch them back together.
WCC
Moral Matters
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In this special six-part series, the Workplace Change Collaborative, funded by a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, explores the drivers and consequences of burnout and moral injury amongst health workers, and identifies practical strategies to improve their well-being.
New episodes are released each week.
Moral Matters
Moral Matters
Moral Matters
In this podcast, Drs. Wendy Dean and Simon Talbot examine moral injury: what it is, why it matters, and the growing need for change.
Select Articles - as Author or Expert
July 2018
Physicians aren’t ‘burning out.’ They’re suffering from moral injury
Published in July 2018, this article introduced the concept of moral injury to healthcare.
"Physicians are smart, tough, durable, resourceful people. If there was a way to MacGyver themselves out of this situation by working harder, smarter, or differently, they would have done it already."
April 2024
Moral Injury in Health Care: A Unified Definition and its Relationship to Burnout
"We suggest that moral injury and burnout represent independent and potentially interrelated pathways to distress. Exposure to chronic, inconsonant, and transactional demands . . . manifests as burnout. In contrast, moral injury arises when a superior’s actions or a system’s policies and practices . . . undermine one’s professional obligations to prioritize the patient’s best interest."
June 2023
NYT Sunday Magazine: The Moral Crisis of America's Doctors by Eyal Press
"The corporatization of health care has changed the practice of medicine, causing many physicians to feel alienated from their work.'
June 2023
How the conversation about moral injury in health care is changing
"That viral nature [of our fifrst article] was not about our cleverness, but about the clamor for a new way to think about a well-worn topic . . . we identified elements of distress that seemed distinct from “burnout.” Those novel elements were the frustration, anger, and disorientation associated with existential threats to our professional identity as corporate interests undermined the oaths we swore to put our patients’ needs first when we embarked on this path"
April 2020
Suicides of two health care workers hint at the Covid-19 mental health crisis to come
" . . . as the pressure to act releases, the pressure to feel intensifies . . . Failing to prepare properly for the mental health aftermath of the pandemic would be another structural betrayal of frontline health care workers, exposing them to needless suffering and possibly death. We must choose to be ready."
Quoted as an Expert
Time Magazine: 'We Carry That Burden.' Medical Workers Fighting COVID-19 Are Facing a Mental Health Crisis
Psychology Today: The Healers Are Hurting
Scientific American: Psychological Trauma is the Next Crisis for Heath Workers
Kaiser Health News: Beyond Burnout: Docs Decry ‘Moral Injury’ From Financial Pressures Of Health Care
Advisory Board: 'The real epidemic in medicine today': Why this MD believes 'moral injury' is hurting doctors—and patients
Lown Institute: Moral Injury: A Systemic Issue In Medicine
