Finding Moral Courage in Difficult Times
- By Françoise Mathieu
Earlier this year, I attended a trauma conference and had an experience that I will never forget.
I was sitting with some colleagues who are all in leadership roles within their respective agencies. We were chatting and catching up over a cup of coffee, waiting for the next session to start.
Suddenly, in a moment that I can only describe as totally surreal, their phones lit up almost in unison. Each had received an urgent message: immediate changes were required to their publicly available resources to align with rapidly changing directives. They all hurriedly stepped out of the presentation to respond.
Later, in private conversations, a few shared with me the weight of that moment and the profound level of confusion, frustration, and moral distress they felt.
For leaders of agencies working with children and other vulnerable populations, it is essential that any publicly shared information is accurate, practical, and evidence-informed. Since their agencies are government funded, these leaders also carry the responsibility of adapting quickly when funding guidelines or political motivations shift.
Crises like this demand careful assessment: how do we stay true to the purpose of our work while responding to what is being asked of us? When might internal advocacy be needed to make sure essential services and person-centered care are preserved? Thinking back to that moment at the conference, I keep returning to the same question: what are our options in the face of these incredibly complicated situations?
And so, I started digging.
I have spent much of my career exploring ways to address moral distress in our field. After the conference, as I began reading and researching, I came across the concept of “moral courage” and realized I had not previously had language for it. Although I am not an ethicist, I am a trauma professional who has spent years listening to people in this work describe how the realities of their roles can create moral distress and pull on their sense of integrity and moral clarity.
My hope is to offer a few ideas that might help during some of the more difficult stretches of your career.
What is moral distress?
I am sure that you can think of examples in your own work where you were given a new rule, mandate, or policy and you immediately thought: “this is B.S.”
Moral distress refers to situations where rules, regulations, laws, or procedures prevent you from acting in line with your core beliefs. It has been described as “when one knows the right thing to do, but institutional constraints make it nearly impossible to pursue the right course of action” (Jameton, 1984).
Examples of this might include having to deny services due to a lack of resources, navigating strict eligibility or intake policies, being unable to provide necessary support due to rigid policies, and many others. Experiencing a certain amount of moral distress over the course of your career is inevitable in our type of work (well, unless you don’t experience empathy).
How do we know if we’re experiencing moral distress? My colleague and dear friend Diana Tikasz encourages us to tune into moments that cause a “yuck factor” – the contraction that happens in our body, that sinking feeling in our gut, or an overall sense of deflation when you are required to do (or not do) something, and inside you think: “this is not okay.”
What is moral courage?
The term moral courage was first coined in 1907 by philosopher Henry Sidgwick. In 2005, Rushworth M. Kidder published a book entitled Moral Courage : Taking Action When Your Values Are Put to the Test. Kidder defines it as: “standing up for values and principles when there is something to lose.”
If you work in a high-stakes environment, you know how quickly decisions that are made far above your role can shape your day-to-day work and the lives of the people you serve. Whether it’s a provincial, state, federal, professional, or organizational level change, we can probably all think of a time when external factors created situations that felt untenable and morally wrong.
I invite you to think of moments in your own work that felt morally challenging. Here are a few examples:
- Jing Mei, a front-line worker in social services, is instructed to use a revised script during intake. Although this script meets all current standards, in practice it feels abrupt with individuals who are already distressed.
- Benson is a supervisor who has been told to limit eligibility for a program due to new funding criteria. He understands the rationale but is also aware that this will exclude several individuals with significant needs.
- Amrit works in developmental services and has been instructed to reduce the length of support sessions due to workload pressures. They comply but feel uneasy ending conversations abruptly with individuals who are in visible distress.
- Maribel works with victims of crime in the local prosecutor’s office. She notices repeated decisions that align with policy but seem at odds with the intent of trauma-informed practice.
How do we navigate these situations while preserving our sense of professional and personal integrity?
Now, I want to be very clear here: showing moral courage is not about doing something illegal. It is not about failing to adhere to guidelines or mandates, ignoring policies and procedures, or breaching professional standards. Those are other forms of protest or decisions we might make at a given time or in some circumstances.
But it’s also not about walking away. As author Cheryl Richardson (1999) said: “do not confuse difficult choices with no choice.” Moral courage is about finding what lies between doing nothing and taking high-cost actions.
So, before we go further into exploring moral courage, I want to take a brief detour and talk about our nervous systems: yours, mine, the people we serve, and yes, even our elected officials.
Let’s all take a breath and consider: are we really living through "unprecedented times?”
Situations that call for moral courage are not new. If you are a student of history, if you listen to elders, or if have talked with people who have lived through community crises, you know this is not the first hard time we have faced. Nor will it be the last.
That is not to minimize what is happening right now, but I firmly believe that we must keep our minds open to what the past can teach us, rather than letting our nervous systems tip into full alarm. Otherwise, we risk letting fear and outrage take over. And when that happens, we lose our ability to think clearly and to problem solve.
I said something similar during the pandemic: if we acted as if COVID was the first crisis of its kind, we risked falling into “pandemic amnesia” (Humphreys, 2021). When we treat crises in this way, our learning stalls and we no longer turn to ancestral wisdom and mentors to learn what helped them stay steady and courageous in their own hard times.
Outrage can be an honest signal that something is wrong, and it is completely understandable to feel it when decisions cause potential or overt harm. If our nervous system stays stuck there, though, it narrows our options.
Moral courage asks us to steady our bodies enough to come out of full alarm or shutdown. If we are able to do this, outrage can become the fuel that we need to engage in action that is grounded and wise.
The basic qualities of moral courage
In his book, Kidder (2005) describes five qualities that support moral courage:
- Integrity: Acting in alignment with your values.
- Honour: Holding yourself to a standard of fairness and truthfulness.
- Responsibility: Recognizing when something needs attention and being willing to carry that forward, even if it is uncomfortable.
- Decency: Choosing respect and humanity in how you approach difficult conversations or decisions.
- Compassion: Staying connected to the people affected by those decisions, including yourself.
Although they may seem like abstract concepts, these can become everyday practices: we can integrate them in how we make decisions, communicate, and how we show up for others during challenging times. You do not need all these qualities at every moment. Most of us will draw on one or two depending on the situation.
How can we put them into practice within the very real constraints of our day-to-day work?
Six steps to cultivate moral courage
Building on Kidder’s work as well as broader writing on ethical decision making, this is the practical framework I use to think about moral courage in constrained systems. You can work through these steps with any of the examples above or with situations from your own work.
Step 1: Name the Distress
Notice the yuck factor and put words to it. What exactly feels off or misaligned with your values? Even when you cannot act yet, naming the tension is the first act of moral courage.
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Jing-Mei: “This script meets standards, but it feels abrupt and out of step with our commitment to trauma-informed practice.”
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Benson: “These criteria exclude people with significant needs and feel out of step with our mission.”
Step 2: Engage in Quiet Courage
Look for one small, value-aligned step that is still within your role and the rules. For example, if you are required to use a script in your work, you might soften abrupt language while keeping the required content. Or perhaps you keep a detailed journal of specific cases or events in your work that concern you.
Quiet courage is about small, persistent adjustments.
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Jing-Mei: Gently adjusts her tone and adds one brief validating sentence while staying within the required script.
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Benson: Begins documenting specific cases that are being turned away and why it concerns him.
Step 3: Strengthen Solidarity
Moral courage grows in community. Check in with trusted others so you are not carrying this alone. Solidarity is about reducing isolation and, when it makes sense, standing alongside others who share your concern.
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Jing-Mei: Checks in with one or two colleagues to see if they are noticing the same discomfort with the script.
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Benson: Checks in with other supervisors to see if they are seeing the same pattern.
Step 4: Use Ethical Channels Strategically
When you see a pattern, consider how and when to raise it through existing structures. For example, you might bring a few anonymized examples to a supervisor, ethics committee, or team meeting and ask for guidance.
The goal is not to escalate every situation, but to use formal channels when they can realistically support change or clarify expectations.
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Jing-Mei: Brings two or three concrete client examples to a supervisor and ask if there is room for minor revisions.
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Benson: Brings a short summary of impacts and examples to the relevant director or committee and ask about possible flexibilities.
Step 5: Invest in Values Clarity
Return to your own North Star and to the stated values of your organization. What are you trying to protect? You might ask: “what helps me feel I had a good, solid day at work? Which compromises feel tolerable, and which cross a line?”
Being clear on your values makes it easier to recognize when they are being tested and to explain your concerns in language others can hear.
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Jing-Mei: Links her concern to stated agency values such as dignity, respect, and safety.
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Benson: Grounds the conversation in stated program values and goals, and names the tension clearly.
Step 6: Support Change from Within
If you have power, tenure, privilege, or social capital, consider how you can use it in proportionate, sustainable ways. For example, you might join a working group, help test a small change, back a junior colleague who has raised a concern, or share data that highlights impact.
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Jing-Mei: Offers to help pilot a slightly revised version of the script and share short feedback from staff and clients.
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Benson: Offers to help explore options such as alternate pathways, a waitlist, or a small exception process for highest-need cases.
This same six-step approach can be adapted for Amrit and Maribel (and your situation) in ways that best fit roles and workplaces.
Keep in mind: you do not have to fix the whole system. Moral courage is about steady, persistent efforts to stay engaged and connected, particularly when times are difficult.
Build your bridge and start walking
Kidder (2005) describes moral courage as “the bridge between talking ethics and doing ethics […] a quality of mind and spirit that enables one to face up to ethical challenges firmly and confidently.”
I firmly believe that what allows us to step onto that bridge are the small, steady things that bring us back to who we are.
My closest friend lives in Ithaca, New York. She is an avid birdwatcher, and I am embarrassed to admit that I barely know the difference between a cardinal and a blue jay. We were walking in the woods recently and I said, “Oh, look at that adorable female chickadee.” She turned to me with a look of horror and said, “Françoise, that is a sparrow. In what universe does that look like a chickadee?”
And we burst out laughing. I share this because, in those quiet moments together, I was reminded that connection, kindness, humour, and the natural world often recalibrate us. They bring us back to why we do this work in the first place.
As a closing reflection, think of someone you have encountered in your work. An individual who brought you back to a sense of purpose. One of those goosebump moments when you thought: “this is why I am here.”
Hold that being in mind when you come up against moral tension. Let that connection help steady your next step and support you in practicing quiet, grounded courage in your own way.
References
American Association of Critical Care Nurses. (n.d.). Moral distress in nursing: What you need to know. https://www.aacn.org/clinical-resources/moral-distress
Davis, M. (1999). Ethics and the university. Routledge.
Humphreys, O. (2021, November 12). Why do we commemorate wars but not pandemics? CBC Ideas. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/why-do-we-commemorate-wars-but-not-pandemics-1.6246133
Jameton, A. (1984). Nursing practice: The ethical issues. Prentice-Hall.
Kidder, R. M. (2005). Moral courage: Taking action when your values are put to the test. William Morrow.
Richardson, C. (1999). Take time for your life: A 7-step program for creating the life you want. Harmony.
Sidgwick, H. (1981). The methods of ethics (7th ed.). Hackett. (Original work published 1907)
One thought on “Finding Moral Courage in Difficult Times”
Thank you for this . It has been very helpful and supportive and enlightening. Good information to share with my work colleagues.