Eric S Swirsky

Email Address: eswir@uic.edu
College: Applied Health Sciences Department: Biomed and Health Info Sciences
Secondary Department: Honors College
Title: Clinical Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
Office: 259AHSB Phone: 312-996-8237
Webpage: https://ahs.uic.edu/biomedical-health-information-sciences/directory/swirsky-eric-scott/
Participating in the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Awards program: Yes

Research Interest:
1) Moral Distress Project (MDP) -- Moral distress within the health professions arises from conflict of a moral agent’s integrity with professional values and responsibilities within a clinical environment. Moral distress arises in a number of situations and has numerous effects upon students and clinicians, including preventing them from doing what they believe is the right. There have been a number of studies on moral distress; however, most have focused upon the profession of nursing while few specifically review the experience of medical students. The MDP will a) produce scoping literature reviews, b) test the validity of survey instruments measuring student perceptions of moral distress, and c) test the efficacy of interventions addressing moral distress. By identifying the sources and types of moral distress that arise in medical students during training, educators can inform their curricula to respond deliberately in promoting and preserving the well-being of learners.

Minimum time commitment in hours per week: 5-10

Qualifications of a Student:
GPPA medical scholars program.

Brief Summary of what is expected from the student:
I'm an health professions educator conducting quantitative and mixed methods investigations into hidden curricula and moral distress in academic medicine. There is no biological lab science being conducted, and the work would primarily involve locating, reading, summarizing and discussing articles from the philosophical and scientific literature, training to lead facilitated ethics conversations with peers, and manuscript preparation. Studies also include survey validation and collection of target data. Students are expected to connect regularly to discuss progress.

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