Jane Kuepfer
Schlegel Specialist in Spirituality and Aging
Jane Kuepfer has partnered with Kate Dupuis and the Centres for Learning, Research and Innovation in Long-term Care team at the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging (RIA) to create an online learning module for long-term care employees about moral distress and moral resilience. “Moral distress is the uncomfortable feeling that can happen when you feel unable to act in a way that aligns with your values, training, or expectations,” Jane explained. “Moral resilience is the ability to stay grounded in your values and regain strength when facing difficult or ethically challenging situations.”
This project began after the pandemic, when Kate and Jane brought together a think tank of researchers. Direct research with long-term care workers led to recommendations for strengthening awareness of moral distress and strategies for building moral resilience. It is culminating in this education module. Support from the multi-skilled RIA team is vital as it helps Jane and Kate conduct research to explore questions and problems and develop responses and resources to address these.
“We hope that through the education module we are creating, people who work in long-term care will better understand their experience and have tools to thrive in work that can be so difficult, yet so meaningful,” Jane added.
