Could Digital Interventions Help Understand And "Flatten The Curve" Of Distress Due To Moral Injury Among Health Care Workers During The COVID Pandemic?

Stress, anxiety, distress and depression are exceptionally high among healthcare workers at the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic. Factors underlying distress and resilience are unknown and there are no evidence based interventions to impact the mental wellbeing of frontline healthcare workers. This study will evaluate a novel virtual reality platform to gather the "distress experience" of frontline healthcare workers at Unity Health Toronto in real time during the ongoing COVID pandemic by developing and showing feasibility of digital technology (Virtual Reality (VR) and mobile app) as a digital platform to understand the causes and ultimately reduce the moral distress of healthcare providers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project will develop innovations which can be used for future pandemics and other contexts prone to producing moral distress and injury.