From Moral Distress to Mutual Recognition: Diaries Kept by French Care Professionals During the Covid Crisis

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the experiences of social care workers during the first wave of the Covid pandemic. The method involved analyzing diaries kept by 65 professionals in 8 French regions during the first lockdown in France in the spring of 2020. As a form of non-binding, narrative expression, keeping diaries breaks with traditional models of reporting common in social care structures and allowed professionals to reflect on the experience as it was lived. In the diaries, professionals explored how the crisis disrupted and challenged their personal and professional values but also allowed innovation in care practices for vulnerable populations that will continue beyond the pandemic period. Five care values were put to forefront by professionals: (1) spontaneity/flexibility; (2) respect for persons; (3) team reflexivity; (4) innovation; (5) solidarity. Mobilizing philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s ideas on recognition, Payet and Laforgue’s analysis of weak actors, as well as research on moral distress, we discuss how these values were tested during the crisis and what effect they had on professionals’ and users’ vulnerabilities. We will also elaborate the interest of keeping account of social care work through narrative methods.

KEYWORDS:

• Covid
• social care
• moral distress
• recognition
• ethics

Acknowledgements

We warmly thank the CREAI team for their proposal of this unique research project and professional project coordination.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brenda Bogaert

Brenda Bogaert is a post-doctoral scholar in philosophy in the Healthcare Values Chair at the University of Lyon III and in a comprehensive cancer center, Centre Léon Bérard, in Lyon.

Jean-Philippe Pierron

Jean-Philippe Pierron is a professor of philosophy at the University of Burgundy and director of the Healthcare Values Chair at the University of Lyon III.