Name
#48 Compassion as a Combat Multiplier: Mitigating Moral Injury Among Military Healthcare Providers in LSCO Crisis Standards of Care
Speakers
LTC (Dr) Kimberly Decker
Chaplain (MAJ) Jon Butler MDiv, MA, MSc , Army Baylor Graduate Program in Health and Business Administration
Chaplain (MAJ) Jon Butler MDiv, MA, MSc , Army Baylor Graduate Program in Health and Business Administration
Content Presented On Behalf Of:
Army
Session Type
Poster
Date
Tuesday, March 3, 2026
Start Time
5:00 PM
End Time
7:00 PM
Location
Prince Georges Expo Hall E
Focus Areas/Topics
Wellbeing, Trending/Hot Topics or Other not listed
Learning Outcomes
1. Describe the anticipated psychological and moral risks to military healthcare providers operating under LSCO Crisis Standards of Care.
2. Explain the evidence-based impact of compassion practices in civilian healthcare and how these can translate to the military context.
3. Identify specific compassion interventions adaptable to austere, high-risk operational environments.
4. Evaluate the role of chaplains, behavioral health, and command leadership in embedding compassion practices into operational planning.
5. Advocate for the inclusion of organizational compassion as a core component of sustaining medical force readiness in future doctrine.
2. Explain the evidence-based impact of compassion practices in civilian healthcare and how these can translate to the military context.
3. Identify specific compassion interventions adaptable to austere, high-risk operational environments.
4. Evaluate the role of chaplains, behavioral health, and command leadership in embedding compassion practices into operational planning.
5. Advocate for the inclusion of organizational compassion as a core component of sustaining medical force readiness in future doctrine.
Session Currently Live
Description
Large-Scale Combat Operations (LSCO) will present unprecedented clinical and ethical challenges for military medical teams operating in austere and contested environments. Providers will be forced to practice under Crisis Standards of Care (CSC), marked by extreme resource scarcity, role strain, tactical triage, and prolonged field care. These conditions significantly increase the risk for psychological stress, burnout, and moral injury. Unlike their civilian counterparts, military medics and clinicians are also warfighters, compounding their exposure to trauma with the dual burdens of mission execution and patient care.
This poster posits that organizational compassion practices, often framed as "soft skills", are in fact critical force multipliers under LSCO conditions. Drawing from robust civilian research on compassion in healthcare organizations, we bridge this literature with the unique operational context of LSCO. Compassion, defined as noticing suffering, feeling empathic concern, and taking action to alleviate it, can be deliberately cultivated at the organizational level to mitigate the negative effects of practicing medicine under duress.
We introduce military-applicable interventions grounded in this compassion science, including Traumatic Event Management (TEM), moral injury first aid protocols, symbolic field rituals supported by chaplains and medics, Combat and Operational Stress Control (COSC), and pre-deployment integration of spiritual and behavioral health leaders in operational planning. These practices are low-cost, adaptable, and already partially present in existing military structures, making them ideal for doctrinal integration.
By shifting compassion from an individual trait to an organizational practice, we equip military healthcare systems to better sustain the well-being, ethical integrity, and operational readiness of our medical teams in future high-intensity conflicts.