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Saturday, October 31, 2009: 3:55 PM
Learning Objective 1: describe the meaning/experience of moral distress for nurses working in hospital environments.
Learning Objective 2: discuss strategies for mitigating the deleterious effects of moral distress.
Abstract
Objectives: The overall objective of this review was to analyze how professional nurses working in hospital environments experience ethical/moral distress.
Inclusion criteria: This review considered qualitative and descriptive/exploratory studies whose participants were professional nurses working in hospital environments and experienced moral/ethical distress as a result of their patient care responsibilities. Studies were included that described the participant’s own experience of moral distress
Search strategy: The search strategy sought to find both published and unpublished research studies. This review was limited to papers in English. An initial limited search of MEDLINE and CINAHL was undertaken followed by an analysis of text words contained in the title and abstract, and of index terms used to describe the article. A second extensive search of all other relevant data bases, including international research, was then undertaken using all identified key words and index terms.
Methodological quality: Each paper was assessed by two independent reviewers for methodological quality prior to inclusion in the review using the Qualitative Assessment and Review Instrument (QARI) developed by the Joanna Briggs Institute.
Data collection: Information was extracted by two reviewers from each paper using the data extraction Qualitative Assessment and Review Instrument. Disagreements were resolved through consultation with a third reviewer.
Data synthesis: Data synthesis aimed to portray an accurate interpretation and synthesis of concepts arising from the selected participants experience of moral distress.
Results: The qualitative studies chosen for this review examined how professional nurses working in hospital environments experienced moral/ethical distress. Findings were analyzed using JBI-QARI. The process of meta-synthesis using this program involved categorizing findings and developing synthesized topics from the categories.
Conclusion: The experience of moral distress is a common phenomena in our complex health care system. Experiencing moral distress adversely affects job satisfaction, retention, a sense of psychological well-being, and professional self-esteem. Strategies to reduce the deleterious effects are discussed.
Objectives: The overall objective of this review was to analyze how professional nurses working in hospital environments experience ethical/moral distress.
Inclusion criteria: This review considered qualitative and descriptive/exploratory studies whose participants were professional nurses working in hospital environments and experienced moral/ethical distress as a result of their patient care responsibilities. Studies were included that described the participant’s own experience of moral distress
Search strategy: The search strategy sought to find both published and unpublished research studies. This review was limited to papers in English. An initial limited search of MEDLINE and CINAHL was undertaken followed by an analysis of text words contained in the title and abstract, and of index terms used to describe the article. A second extensive search of all other relevant data bases, including international research, was then undertaken using all identified key words and index terms.
Methodological quality: Each paper was assessed by two independent reviewers for methodological quality prior to inclusion in the review using the Qualitative Assessment and Review Instrument (QARI) developed by the Joanna Briggs Institute.
Data collection: Information was extracted by two reviewers from each paper using the data extraction Qualitative Assessment and Review Instrument. Disagreements were resolved through consultation with a third reviewer.
Data synthesis: Data synthesis aimed to portray an accurate interpretation and synthesis of concepts arising from the selected participants experience of moral distress.
Results: The qualitative studies chosen for this review examined how professional nurses working in hospital environments experienced moral/ethical distress. Findings were analyzed using JBI-QARI. The process of meta-synthesis using this program involved categorizing findings and developing synthesized topics from the categories.
Conclusion: The experience of moral distress is a common phenomena in our complex health care system. Experiencing moral distress adversely affects job satisfaction, retention, a sense of psychological well-being, and professional self-esteem. Strategies to reduce the deleterious effects are discussed.