If I Betray These Words Moral Injury in Medicine and Why It's So Hard for Clinicians to Put Patients First

<b>FEATURES A NEW AFTERWORD BY THE AUTHOR<br><br>An incredibly important and captivating book for patients, families, and clinicians detailing how we’re all hurt by corporate medicine<br><br>“Wendy Dean diagnoses the dangerous state of our healthcare system, illustrating the thumbscrews applied to medical professionals by their corporate overlords… Required reading for all stakeholders in healthcare.” — Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, author of <i>When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error</i></b><br><br>Offering examples of how to make medicine better for the healers and those they serve, <i>If I Betray These Words</i> profiles clinicians across the country who are tough, resourceful, and resilient, but feel trapped between the patient-first values of their Hippocratic oath and the business imperatives of a broken healthcare system.<br><br>Doctors face real risks when they stand up for their patients and their oath; they may lose their license, their livelihood, and for some, even their lives.<br><br>There’s a growing sense, referred to as moral injury, that doctors have their hands tied – they know what patients need but can’t get it for them because of constraints imposed by healthcare systems run like big businesses.<br><br>Workforce distress in healthcare—moral injury—was a crisis long before the COVID-19 pandemic, but COVID highlighted the vulnerabilities in our healthcare systems and made it impossible to ignore the distress, with 1 in 5 American healthcare workers leaving the profession since 2020, and up to 47% of U.S. healthcare workers now planning to leave their positions by 2025.<br><br><i>If I Betray These Words</i> 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. We need better healthcare—for patients and for the workforce. It’s time to act.