Journal article
Exploring the moral distress of registered nurses
Nursing ethics, v 14(3), pp 344-359
May 2007
PMID: 17459818
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Registered nurses (RNs) employed in an urban medical center in the USA identified moral distress as a practice concern. This study describes RNs' moral distress and the frequency of morally distressing events. Data were collected using the Moral Distress Scale and an open-ended questionnaire. The instruments were distributed to direct-care-providing RNs; 100 responses were returned. Morally distressing events included: working with staffing levels perceived as 'unsafe', following families' wishes for patient care even though the nurse disagreed with the plan, and continuing life support for patients owing to family wishes despite patients' poor prognoses. One high frequency distressing event was carrying out orders for unnecessary tests and treatments. Qualitative data analysis revealed that the nurses sought support and information from nurse managers, chaplaincy services and colleagues. The RNs requested further information on biomedical ethics, suggested ethics rounds, and requested a non-punitive environment surrounding the initiation of ethics committee consultations.
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Details
- Title
- Exploring the moral distress of registered nurses
- Creators
- Patti Rager Zuzelo - Philadelphia University
- Publication Details
- Nursing ethics, v 14(3), pp 344-359
- Publisher
- Sage
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Nurse Practitioner Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000246554100008
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-34248212353
- Other Identifier
- 991020785748704721
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InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Ethics
- Nursing