Resilience Factor 3: Moral Compass

"Actively identifying your core values, assessing the degree to which you are living by these values, and challenging yourself to adopt a higher standard can strengthen character and build resilience." (Southwick and Charney, 2018, p.86)

A moral compass can help you balance your reason and emotion, practicality and idealism, and your needs as well as those of others. A moral compass can guide you toward what you ought to do in a given situation, not just what you want to do or even what others want you to do. The strength of your moral compass helps define your character, which determines how people choose to interact with you.

Rebekah

Five Days At Memorial

When I think of facing challenges directly related to moral values, I cannot help but think of the book "Five Days At Memorial." It is the story of a New Orleans hospital crippled by Hurricane Katrina and the doctors and nurses forced to ration care and drugs and the consequences they faced in the aftermath. As nurses (and doctors) we are taught to minimize harm, to help and to heal with compassion, and to do the most good. What happens when supplies run out? When power is down and generators don't work or not enough? This story is wholly applicable to our topic of disaster and to the subject of moral values. Many people looked down and aghast at what happened at Memorial because of the moral and ethical code healthcare providers are expected to have and felt that what they did was in violation of that. After completing this week's reading on Chapter 4, doing things that might be in direct conflict with your own moral values (like Knutson did at Hanoi, revealing more than "the basic four"), doesn't mean that you aren't resilient. Resiliency in the face of insurmountable odds, is accepting what you can change and can do and letting the rest fall away. The healthcare providers at Memorial did what they could with what they had at hand and made decisions many aren't willing to face or make and then walked out of that hospital knowing they did the best good that they could do. To me, they are resilient because they knew the story of their time at Memorial would get out and instead of thinking about the negatives (how they would be judged), they performed the best they could at the time they did.

Fink, S (2016). Five days at memorial: life and death in a storm-ravaged hospital. Broadway Books.

Josh

Morality is Flexible

In the scenario given in the assignment, in the book mentioned by Rebekah, and in famous moral thought experiments such as the train trolley exercise, we can see that "...both context and emotions moderate moral standards, and by extension, moral behavior" (FeldmanHall, Son, & Heffner, 2018).

I don't know if this is a cop out for this post, but I can't say how somebody who is resilient would act in a crisis. We have all been in the position of anxiety and fear taking over our higher brain functions. As nurses, I hear this story often when people face their first Code Blue. As things start to go awry even the most well intentioned, morally upstanding nurse may freeze, may be too scared to run toward danger, especially the first time when your adrenaline takes over. Fear is a powerful emotion that can cause is to cower when we should stand tall, can cause us to steal things if we think they will aid the survival of ourselves or others we love, and can cause good people to run past others on the ground in their attempt to get to safety. Resilience, to me, is about how we react to our trauma, not our behaviors within the traumatic experience. There is no moral absolutism. And thus there can be no series of actions that would exemplify resilience in the midst of a tragedy or disaster. The man in the horrifying scenario with his daughter, posed to our class, behaved in the ways he believed would keep him alive. His resilience would not be needed until after the event. Morality caused doctors and nurses to behave outside of the bonds of what is considered moral and ethical, but in context we cannot say we would've behaved differently. Resilience, in my understanding, comes after the trauma. Morality, ethics, and codes of behavior, will change in the moment of deep fear and survival instinct. In fact all combat training, whether fighting to being a medic, is meant to help your body automatically behave in a certain way when higher brain functions are overridden by an acute, emergent, fear response. So, my answer, while possibly unsatisfying, is that there is no way to know how anybody will act in a disaster. Context and emotional response can bend morality and ethical decision making. Resilience must come afterwards.

References

FeldmanHall, O., Son, J. Y., & Heffner, J. (2018). Norms and the Flexibility of Moral Action. Personality Neuroscience, 1, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1017/pen.2018.13

Yasmin

Rising up in the face of stigma

This is based on a true story about someone I know. A woman who initially married at the age of 18 went through a divorce four years later. This was in the setting of a society where divorce was not only customary, but also highly stigmatized. She left her husband due to his mental illness. She had a three year old daughter, which made it even less customary to leave a marriage. She lost many friends, and some family members cut contact with her because of her decision to file for divorce. It took everything she had to fight the stigma and humiliation. Despite the social consequences, she moved out of the house, took her daughter with her, and moved in with her parents. She had a college degree, but she was not employed anywhere and had no stable income. Despite the lack of employment, she used the resources she had, namely her parents to gain financial support in the form of housing and food for herself and her daughter. Over time, she obtained a job and began earning a wage. Even though she had lost some friends because of her divorce, she was able to form new relationships with new friends. After some time, she also began seeing a therapist to discuss her thoughts and feelings about her divorce, stigma associated with it, and ways to grow and overcome this experience.

This scenario demonstrates how a resilient person acted in the face of a challenging experience. It is worthy to note that a divorce alone is stressful in nature, even without the presence of social stigma. However, this woman was able to break the stigma, file for divorce, and in some ways become more independent. Her use of resources, such as her parents demonstrates strength rather than weakness. She also experienced growth through finding employment and developing new relationships. The attached image reminds me of this woman and her overcoming of challenges.

deLaski, Carol. (2020, March 2). What makes a woman strong and Resilient. Wholistic women retreats. Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://wholisticwomanretreats.com/what-makes-a-woman-strong-and-resilient/

Sol

Here is a look into how man-made disasters affect communities and how to move forward. This article discusses how the LGBTQ community moved forward after the Pulse shooting in Orlando in 2016. Similar to the example in grief and loss, the importance of Pride celebrations remains in the face of tragedy.

DiBlasio, N. (2016, June, 24). After Orlando, Pride revisits its meaning. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/06/24/orlandos-wake-pride-revisits-its-meaning/86301490/

Crista

Ethical Dilemas in Early Disaster Recovery

Merin, O., Ash, N., Levy, G., Schwaber, M. J., & Kreiss, Y. (2010). The Israeli Field Hospital in Haiti — Ethical Dilemmas in Early Disaster Response. New England Journal of Medicine, 362(11). https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp1001693

This is an article that discusses ethical issues that were faced when triaging patients in Haiti during the 2010 earthquake.

Helen

Moral or Immoral

This was a true story that I heard from my friend who worked as a RN in the hospital many years ago in China. A young male patient (at his 20s) was hospitalized because of Tuberculosis accompanied with major organ failure. After a couple weeks of hospitalization, his condition was not improved at all. On the contrary, his organs were deteriorating. He did not response to any stimuli either. The oxygen and IV infusion were continuously given through bedside devices. His parents, especially his father did not want him suffer any more. So he spoke to the attending physician and asked the doctor to give some medicine to end his son’s life quickly. The physician finally injected some medicine into patient’s heart, the patient died in a few minutes peacefully. The action actually was illegal in China, I do not understand why the physician did it. Morally, I can not accept this because the doctor helped someone to end his life quickly. On the other hand, the patient did not suffer and did not experience pain any more. He was relieved from his incurable condition. The standard of morality may change due to different situation or different people.

Roselyn

Here is a video of a Japanese woman who have survived two tsunamis in Japan. She is an example of how people who have experienced a disaster can help instill resiliency in her community. In the video, Yoshi talked about how she did it with a simple picture aimed to only teach her own grandchildren her story.

Image:

Okubo, G. (2014, June 27). Spirit and Spine. RINRI Institute of Ethics. http://www.spiritandspine.com/backnumber/tabata_yoshi.html

Video:

Tedx Talks. (2012, October 12). Yoshi tabata at tedxsendai(english). [Video]. You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQskwJSRecI

Michelle

Moral Decisions During Disaster

As I think about someone facing a natural disaster and being confronted with their values, I reflect on some of the split decisions that would have to be made in the event of an earthquake and impending tsunami. What would you take with you, who would you protect and make sure they were safe? There would have to be a lot of moral decisions made in a small amount of time. Here is one scenario that I found in an article/blog that was comprised of the ways that many have survived a tsunami. I think of the moral values and distress that Mr. Hernandez may have faced as he was able to spare his own life, but not the life of his son during a Chilean tsunami.

"In nearby Quenuir, at the mouth of the Rio Maullin, Estalino Hernandez climbed an arrayan tree to escape the tsunami's waves. While he clung to the tree, the waters of the tsunami rose to his waist. Not far away, the onrushing water covered land 30 feet above see level. Although Mr. Hernandez survived the tsunami, he lost his 13-year-old son to the waves. Quenuir had 104 other victims , most of whom took boats just after the earthquake and were caught by the first wave of tsunami."

Atwater, B.F., Cisternas, M.V., Bourgeois, J., Dudley, , W.C., Hendley II, J.W., & Stauffer, P. H. (2005). Surviving a Tsunami Lessons from Chile, Hawaii, and Japan. Retrieved April 17,2021, from https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1187/#tree

"Adherence to our own moral compass is inextricably linked to resilience. We can become more faithful to our moral compass by taking an inventory of our most closely held beliefs and values, by learning from the writings and examples of ethical women and men, by discussing our beliefs with people whose values we respect, and then by practicing our values, particularly during times of adversity" (Southwick and Charney, 2018, pp. 106-107).

When in despair, the temptation may be to bend the rules, take advantage, use deception and even cheat. A moral compass can help choose the right direction, make decisions that you will not have to apologize for later and help guide you from your despair. Values help make decisions that sustain us. Knowing what is important to us and knowing how to sustain ourselves are important pieces of resiliency.

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