"Wendy Dean diagnoses the dangerous state of our healthcare system, illustrating the thumbscrews applied to medical professionals by their corporate overlords... Required reading for all stakeholders in healthcare." -- Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, author of When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error

Offering examples of how to make medicine better for the healers and those they serve, If I Betray These Words profiles clinicians across the country who are tough, resourceful, and resilient, but feel trapped between the patient-first values of their Hippocratic oath and the business imperatives of a broken healthcare system.

Doctors face real risks when they stand up for their patients and their oath; they may lose their license, their livelihood, and for some, even their lives.

There's a growing sense, referred to as moral injury, that doctors have their hands tied - they know what patients need but can't get it for them because of constraints imposed by healthcare systems run like big businesses.

Workforce distress in healthcare--moral injury--was a crisis long before the COVID-19 pandemic, but COVID highlighted the vulnerabilities in our healthcare systems and made it impossible to ignore the distress, with 1 in 5 American healthcare workers leaving the profession since 2020, and up to 47% of U.S. healthcare workers now planning to leave their positions by 2025.

If I Betray These Words confronts the threat and broken promises of moral injury - what it is; where it comes from; how it manifests; and who's fighting back against it. We need better healthcare--for patients and for the workforce. It's time to act.