ArticleEthics & human research
Investigating Moral Distress in Clinical Research Professionals-A Deep Dive into Troubled Waters.
Article in Ethics & human research. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Legislative Constraints and Moral Distress: Reframing Occupational Risks Through a Public Health Ethics Lens.Public health ethics · 2026Article
- Moral Injury in Gaza: The Impact on Healthcare Professionals.Health science reports · 2026Article
- We watched him die without oxygen: reflections and responses on moral injury among research staff in LMIC hospitals.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- "The most stress comes from witnessing the abuse of children" -challenges faced by research assistants in community-based research in Mtwara, Tanzania.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Psychological distress in clinical research professionals in acute care settings: Potential risks and future directions.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2025Article
- Investigating Moral Distress in Clinical Research Professionals-A Deep Dive into Troubled Waters.Ethics & human researchArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Moral distress occurs when professionals are constrained from taking what they believe to be ethically appropriate actions or are forced to take actions they believe are ethically inappropriate, challenging their professional identities and representing systems-level issues within organizations. Moral distress has been recognized in a variety of health care-related fields; however, the phenomenon is still comparatively unexplored among clinical research professionals (CRPs). In this qualitative study, we interviewed ten CRPs to unearth root causes of moral distress in this ethically unique profession. Four themes emerged from the data as contributors to moral distress: commodification of research; concern for research participants; compromised science; and structures of hierarchy. The experience of racism as a source of moral distress is also explored. The findings of this study indicate that the existence of moral distress in clinical research is troubling not only for the welfare of CRPs but also for the greater clinical research enterprise.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.