Caring for tomorrow's workforce: Moral resilience and healthcare ethics education

Using critical reflection to enhance the care of older people: a practice example

Reflection is an essential aspect of nursing practice that facilitates continuing professional development and practice improvement. Critical reflection is a more in-depth form of reflection and can be described as a creative, dynamic and transformative learning process that enhances practice by promoting self-awareness and critical thinking. Older adults often present with complex and multiple healthcare needs. Engaging in critical reflection can assist nurses to provide the high-quality, person-centred care required to meet those needs, support older people to retain their independence and enhance their well-being. This article discusses critical reflection within the context of nursing older people and describes various models that can be used to support the reflective process. The authors use a practice example to illustrate how using critical reflection in practice can enable nurses to develop a deeper understanding of themselves and use what they have learned to enhance their delivery of person-centred care.

"Moral spaces": A feasibility study to build nurses' ethical confidence and competence

Background: Pre-licensure ethics nursing education does not adequately prepare and instill confidence in nurses to address ethical issues, and yet ethics education provides nurses with greater confidence to take moral action, which can mitigate the negative effects of moral distress. Objectives: To assess the feasibility and acceptability of a nursing ethics education program that included simulated case-based ethics competencies as a form of evaluation. The program aimed at building nurses' ethical knowledge and confidence to respond to ethical challenges in practice. Research design: A prospective, longitudinal, correlational, single-cohort feasibility study using an investigator-developed survey and intervention field data. Participants and research context: Registered nurses were recruited from an academic quaternary-care medical center and 9 small- to mid-sized regional hospitals within one health system in the Midwest United States. Ethical considerations: IRB approval was obtained. Participants could complete the educational program regardless of research process participation. Findings: Of 20 participants, 19 (95%) provided post-program surveys and 18 completed competencies. Median (IQR) scores with quartiles for scheduling, timing, and length of sessions were all 10.0 [9.0, 10.0], and participants perceived that the content was interesting, increased knowledge and confidence in ethics, increased skills in providing ethical care, and would recommend the program to colleagues. Of factors, an increase in ethics knowledge had the highest "always agree" (17, 89.5%) response. Most participants reported that ethics competencies were appropriate 9.0 [9.0, 10.0] and sufficiently challenging 10.0 [9.0, 10.0]. Discussion: The education program developed nurses' ethics knowledge and confidence. The single-cohort feasibility design provided early-stage intervention outcomes; however, a larger randomized controlled trial would substantiate program value. Conclusion: This novel ethics education program was highly feasible and acceptable to hospital-based nurses who reported increased knowledge and confidence in providing ethical care. Simulated case-based ethics competencies were an appropriate evaluation method.

Keep quiet or act? Challenges in integrating ethical theory into gerontological nursing care during students' first clinical rotation: A discussion paper

AIM

The aim of the paper is twofold: 1. To present observations based on first-year nursing students' narratives during clinical rotation in gerontological nursing care; and 2. Explore a nursing educator's reflections on these observations in relation to the didactic and ethical challenges that occurred.

BACKGROUND

The teaching of ethics is included in nurse education worldwide. Students are in their first clinical placement in residential care of older persons confronted with the moral complexities of gerontological care, where they get little possibility to share emotions and thoughts about ethically challenging nursing situations with a supervising registered nurse.

DESIGN

A critical discussion paper.

METHOD

The educator's reflections in this discussion paper are based on a narrative assignment in ethics where first-year nursing students reflect on and describe a nursing situation during their clinical rotation in the residential care of older persons.

RESULTS

Most students were acting as mere spectators in the described nursing situation where an older person, ethical standards, or evidence-based care was violated. Some students acted as advocates to the older person and intervened in the situation and a few as inspirers showing alternative ways of handling ethically challenging situations.

CONCLUSIONS

Educators in nursing programs at the undergraduate level require time for student-centered formative guidance to foster moral courage and practice. During first-year students' clinical rotation, the learning goals in long-term residential care of older persons are focused on evidence-based basic nursing care. In this, students are confronted with ethically challenging situations, where the possibility to learn from a critical reflective practice is rare. When observing situations where an older person is subjected to unethical or unsafe nursing care it is common that the students take the spectators' role, not knowing how to deal with what is observed. Some students are taking an intervening role by trying to alleviate the vulnerability of the older person. A few are showing moral courage by directly intervening when experiencing unethical or unsafe nursing care or conduct. In this the student can inspire fellow students or staff during their clinical rotation in alternative ways of handling ethically challenging situations. As older persons are the largest demographic group that nurses will experience, educators need a sound knowledge of ethics as well as gerontological care to be able to meet and nurture students' ethical reflections during clinical practice and to foster practical wisdom in nursing.

Moral distress, moral resilience, and job embeddedness among pediatric nurses

BACKGROUND

Nurses often face ethical issues in their daily work that can have an impact on their level of job embeddedness. And positive job embeddedness is essential to reduce burnout among nurses and improve professional retention in the medical industry. However, few studies have focused on the relationship between moral distress, moral resilience, and job embeddedness.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the relationship between moral distress, moral resilience, and job embeddedness, and explore the mediating role of moral resilience between moral distress and job embeddedness among nurses.

DESIGN

A quantitative, cross-sectional study.

METHODS

Nurses from a number of tertiary general hospitals in central China were surveyed and assessed using the Moral Distress Scale, the Nurse Moral Resilience Scale, and the nurse job embeddedness Scale from February to March 2023. The study was conducted in line with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATION

All study procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of Hunan Normal University (No. 2023-313).

FINDINGS

Moral distress was positively correlated with moral resilience (β = 0.525, p < 0.01) and negatively correlated job embeddedness (β = -0.470, p < 0.01). Moral resilience partially mediated the relationship between moral distress with job embeddedness (β = -0.087, p < 0.01).

DISCUSSION

The findings reveal a relationship between moral distress, job embeddedness, and moral resilience among nurses.

CONCLUSION

Moral distress and moral resilience are important correlates of job embeddedness in nurses. Interventions to reduce moral distress and increase moral resilience may have potential benefits for improving nurses' job embeddedness. It is recommended that clinical nursing administrators create a favorable ethical atmosphere, educate nurses about ethics, and increase nurses' moral resilience.

Overestimating prevalence? Rethinking boundaries and confounders of moral distress

Moral distress denotes a negative reaction to a morally challenging situation. It has been associated with adverse outcomes for healthcare professionals, patients and healthcare institutions. We argue that existing definitions, along with measures of moral distress, compromise the validity of empirical research. First, the definition and measurement of moral distress conflate moral events and psychological distress, even though they are distinct phenomena that should be assessed independently. Second, in many studies, there is a lack of clarity in distinguishing between moral and non-moral events. Finally, prior research on moral distress often overlooks the substantial body of evidence demonstrating the impact of diverse work-related factors, beyond moral events, on both distress and job retention. These challenges might undermine the effectiveness of interventions aimed at alleviating moral distress. We outline a comprehensive research agenda that encompasses conceptual clarifications, the refinement of data collection instruments, the design of studies and the application of appropriate statistical methods.

Examining the effect of moral resilience on moral distress

AIMS

The study aims to test the Turkish validity and reliability of the Rushton Moral Resilience Scale (RMRS) and examine the effect of moral resilience on moral distress.

BACKGROUND

Moral distress is a phenomenon that negatively affects health workers, health institutions, and the person receiving care. In order to eliminate or minimize the negative effects of moral distress, it is necessary to increase the moral resilience of nurses. Moral resilience involves developing systems that support a culture of ethical practice in healthcare and aim to increase an individual's capacity to cope with moral challenges.

METHODS

A methodological and descriptive-predictive study design was adopted. Sociodemographic Information Form, Measure of Moral Distress - Healthcare Professionals (MMD-HP), and Rushton Moral Resilience Scale were used to collect data from the nurses. A total of 255 clinical nurses were recruited.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Hacettepe University's non-interventional ethics committee approved the study's protocol and informed consent was obtained from the participants.

RESULTS

The original four-factor structure of the scale was tested with confirmatory factor analysis, and the index values were evaluated and found at an acceptable level. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient of the scale was found to be 0.826. Moral resilience predicted moral distress total, intensity, and frequency levels. A moderate and weak relationship was found in the negative between all sub-dimensions of moral distress and moral resilience.

CONCLUSIONS

The Rushton Moral Resilience Scale Turkish version showed good psychometric properties. Moral resilience has a reducing effect on moral distress. Young nurses who have less experience are at risk because they have lower moral resilience levels, while nurses working in intensive care units are at risk because of their high moral distress levels. A healthy workplace can be created by developing specific approaches to improve moral resilience in reducing the impact of moral distress in the healthcare environment.

The role of identity in the experiences of dementia care workers from a minority ethnic background during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Care home staff working during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced higher levels of stress and increased workloads. People from diverse ethnic backgrounds were disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explored the identity experiences of care home staff from diverse ethnic backgrounds in the context of working during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

Fourteen semistructured interviews were conducted between May 2021 and April 2022 with ethnic minority care home staff in England, who worked during the pandemic. Participants were recruited using convenience and theoretical sampling. Interviews were conducted via telephone or online platforms. A social constructivist grounded theory methodology was utilised in analysing the data.

FINDINGS

Participants described five key processes which facilitated or hindered the impact that their experiences had on their identity: dealing with uncertainty and transitioning into a COVID-19 world; difficult emotions; experiences of discrimination and racism; the response from the care home and societal systems; and the personal vs collective responsibility. When participants' physical and psychological needs went unmet by support structures within the care home and/or society, they experienced a sense of injustice, lack of control and being unvalued or discriminated against by others.

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlights the importance of recognising the unique needs of staff from diverse ethnic backgrounds working in care homes and adapting working practices to improve impact on identity, job satisfaction and staff retention.

PATIENT AND PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT

One care home worker was involved in developing the topic guide and helping to interpret the findings.

An educational program of reducing moral distress (PRMD) in nurses; designing and evaluating

BACKGROUND

Moral distress is common phenomenon that has negative consequences on nurses, patients, and healthcare systems. This study aims to design and evaluate an educational program to reduce moral distress in nurses.

METHODS

This multiphase mixed-method study was done in three stage on February 2021 in Shiraz/Iran. In pre-implementation stage, a content analysis study was conducted on 12 participants were interviewed using purposive sampling and then the program was designed according to qualitative data, panel of expertise and literature review according the seven steps of Ewles and Sminett's model and implemented in one group on 40 nurses using a quasi-experimental design. In Post-Implementation stage, effectiveness of program was evaluated through quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative data were gathered by Hamric's 21-question moral distress questionnaire analyzed via SPSS v.25 and analysis of variance repeated measures test. Also, a content analysis study was conducted on 6 PRMD participants using purposive sampling. In Program evaluation stage, convergence of quantitative and qualitative data and the effects of the program were examined. Trustworthiness of qualitative data was accomplished by Lincoln and Guba criteria.

RESULTS

First quantitative study revealed the causes of moral distress consisted of deficiency in professional competency, unsuitable organizational culture, personal factors, environmental and organizational factors, management factors, insufficiencies in proficient and efficient communication and nurses' observation of moral dilemma. Results of quantitative stage showed that there was a significant difference (p < 0.05) between the mean score of moral distress before, after, 1 and 2 months after the intervention. The participants in secondary qualitative stage, reported increasing their moral knowledge and skills, improving ethical climate, and moral empowerment.

CONCLUSION

The use of different educational tools and teaching methods and the participation of managers in designing strategies had a very effective role in the effectiveness of this educational program.

Reflective based learning for nursing ethical competency during clinical practices

BACKGROUND

A combination of theoretical and practical approaches is required to learn and acquire ethical competencies in caring. Occasionally, reflection on practical action differs from theoretical learning. In the context of reflective learning, issues such as ethical values can be discussed since they evoke conflict among nursing students.

AIM

To identify ethical conflicts encountered by nursing students during clinical placements and to determine their cooperation strategies.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Qualitative study with a content analysis according to Elo and Kinglas framework.

PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT

Students enrolled in a nursing program at a Spanish university aged between 22 and 35, mainly women.

METHODOLOGY

The study includes 134 ethical reflections from nursing students in the last year of the nursing program, written during their clinical practices in a variety of learning environments. The research team analyzed the reflections using an inductive content analysis method.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Ethical permission was obtained by the management center according to Law 3/2028, and all the participants accepted to participate through the informed consent form.

FINDINGS

Three main categories emerged from the analysis of the ethical reflections: (1) evaluation of professional performance and patient care; (2) the student as the protagonist of the dilemma; (3) student coping. Student dilemmas and concerns are related to ignorance, student-patient communication, mistakes made and self-confidence. Some situations conflict with the autonomy of patients and their rights, and can contribute to stressful situations for patients. Stress factors include hospital routines, which the patient cannot modify, and asymmetric relationships with staff, which encourage passivity.

CONCLUSION

All ethical problems detected by the students begin with the professional-patient relationship, including issues related to bad news, errors or malpractice. Reflection on the ethical values of nursing, both in the classroom and in clinical practices, allows students to develop a greater ethical awareness of care, enhancing their decision-making skills in ethical dilemmas.

CURA: A clinical ethics support instrument for caregivers in palliative care

This article presents an ethics support instrument for healthcare professionals called CURA. It is designed with a focus on and together with nurses and nurse assistants in palliative care. First, we shortly go into the background and the development study of the instrument. Next, we describe the four steps CURA prescribes for ethical reflection: (1) Concentrate, (2) Unrush, (3) Reflect, and (4) Act. In order to demonstrate how CURA can structure a moral reflection among caregivers, we discuss how a case was discussed with CURA at a psychogeriatric ward of an elderly care home. Furthermore, we go into some considerations regarding the use of the instrument in clinical practice. Finally, we focus on the need for further research on the effectiveness and implementation of CURA.

Moral distress-associated sociodemographic and occupational aspects in nursing managers at federal university hospitals

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the association between sociodemographic and occupational characteristics and the predictors of Moral Distress in nursing managers of Federal University Hospitals.

METHOD

Cross-sectional study carried out with 126 nurses. Data were collected online between September 2019 and May 2020 applying the Brazilian Scale of Moral Distress in Nurses. The variables were analyzed using descriptive and bivariate statistics to compare the instrument mean responses in relation to sociodemographic and occupational characteristics (hospital size, region, age, gender, training and experience variables, employment relationships, and workload).

RESULTS

The highest levels of Moral Distress were experienced by nurses in large hospitals, with statistical significance among civil servants with job stability who have no management training, with less time of professional experience and with the highest weekly workload, with emphasis on predictive factors of "safe and qualified care", "work conditions" and "work team".

CONCLUSION

Based on the above, it is understood that studies of this nature allow the generation of adaptive strategies to reduce the impacts of Moral Distress.

Resilience, Moral Distress, and Job Satisfaction Driving Engagement in Emergency Department Nurses: A Qualitative Analysis

AIM

The aim of this study was to explore how resilience, job satisfaction, and moral distress affect emergency department (ED) nurses' workplace engagement.

BACKGROUND

Stressful nursing workplace conditions increase moral distress. Lowering moral distress and improving resilience can increase workplace engagement.

METHOD

Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 ED nurses.

RESULTS

Participants indicated that greater nursing experience, increased confidence in skills, ability to overcome emotional stressors, and more satisfaction with patient care all improved resilience and workplace engagement. Morally distressed, disengaged nurses reportedly lacked workplace autonomy and/or ability to make workplace changes or worked in hostile and/or unsafe workplaces. Engaged nurses invested more time in their job and were more willing to remain in their workplace.

CONCLUSION

Retaining older, more experienced nurses, valuing staff work, and creating a meaningful workplace foster workplace engagement.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Nurse managers can support nurses' workplace engagement through interventions that build resilience, lower moral distress, and increase job satisfaction.

Aspectos sociodemográficos e laborais associados ao distresse moral em gestores de enfermagem de hospitais universitários federais

RESUMO Objetivo: Analisar a associação entre as características sociodemográficas e laborais e os fatores preditores de Distresse Moral em gestores de enfermagem de Hospitais Universitários Federais. Método: Estudo transversal realizado com 126 enfermeiros. Os dados foram coletados entre os meses de setembro de 2019 e maio de 2020, via online, aplicando-se a Escala Brasileira de Distresse Moral em Enfermeiros. As variáveis foram analisadas por estatística descritiva e bivariada para comparar as médias de respostas do instrumento em relação às características sociodemográficas e laborais (porte do hospital, região, idade, sexo, variáveis de formação e experiências, vínculos e carga horária). Resultados: Os níveis mais elevados de Distresse Moral foram vivenciados por enfermeiros em hospitais de grande porte, com significância estatística entre os estatutários, sem formação em gestão, com menor tempo de experiência profissional e com a maior carga horária de trabalho semanal, com ênfase nos fatores preditores de “cuidado seguro e qualificado”, “condições de trabalho” e “equipe de trabalho”. Conclusão: A partir do exposto, entende-se que estudos dessa natureza permitem gerar estratégias adaptativas para reduzir os impactos do Distresse Moral.

The moral distress model: An empirically informed guide for moral distress interventions

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To explore moral distress empirically and conceptually, to understand the factors that mitigate and exacerbate moral distress and construct a model that represents how moral distress relates to its constituent parts and related concepts.

BACKGROUND

There is ongoing debate about how to understand and respond to moral distress in nursing practice.

DESIGN

The overarching design was feminist empirical bioethics in which feminist interpretive phenomenology provided the tools for data collection and analysis, reported following the COREQ guidelines. Using reflexive balancing, the empirical data were combined with feminist theory to produce normative recommendations about how to respond to moral distress. The Moral Distress Model presented in this paper is a culmination of the empirical data and theory.

METHODS

Using feminist interpretive phenomenology, critical care nurses in the United Kingdom (n = 21) were interviewed and data analysed. Reflexive Balancing was used to integrate the data with feminist theory to provide normative recommendations about how to understand moral distress.

RESULTS

There are five compounding factors that exacerbate/ mitigate nurses' experiences of moral distress: epistemic injustice; the roster lottery; conflict between one's professional and personal responsibilities; ability to advocate and team dynamics. In addition to the causal connection and responses to moral distress, these factors make up the moral distress model which can guide approaches to mitigate moral distress.

CONCLUSIONS

The Moral Distress Model is the culmination of these data and theorising formulated into a construct to explain how each element interacts. We propose that this model can be used to inform the design of interventions to address moral distress.

Interventions to mitigate moral distress: A systematic review of the literature

BACKGROUND

Moral distress is a pervasive phenomenon that can negatively impact healthcare professionals and has been well studied in nursing populations. Much of the evidence suggests that it is associated with intention to leave high acuity areas and the profession. Despite the increasing amounts of research to explore the causes and effects of moral distress, there is limited research on interventions that mitigate the negative effects of moral distress.

OBJECTIVES

The aims of this systematic review were to: (a) identify and examine interventions developed to address moral distress experienced by health care professionals (b) examine the quality of the research methods and (c) report on the efficacy of these interventions.

DESIGN

We conducted a systematic review of interventional studies developed to mitigate moral distress.

DATA SOURCE

Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Cochrane were searched for relevant studies (July 2019- September 2019). Additional bioethics databases and reference lists were also hand-searched.

REVIEW METHODS

The first author reviewed all retrieved titles and abstracts with a low tolerance for borderline papers based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, and those papers were reviewed and discussed by all authors to determine inclusion. Quality appraisal was conducted on the included studies using narrative synthesis to compare the findings. Data were extracted and compared by all authors and then reviewed by the first author for consistency.

RESULTS

Sixteen papers were included for full text review and the following interventions identified: educational interventions of varying length and breadth; facilitated discussions ranging from 30 to 60 minutes; specialist consultation services; an intervention bundle; multidisciplinary rounds; self-reflection and narrative writing. Researchers reported statistically significant reductions in moral distress using pre and post surveys, including one mixed methods program evaluation (n=7). The qualitative program evaluation provided participant quotations to suggest their program was beneficial. There were no statistically significant findings in the other studies (n=8). All studies had limitations in design and methodology presenting significant threats to validity.

CONCLUSION

Designing rigorous research studies that measure the impact of interventions aimed at mitigating moral distress continues to be challenging. The primary reason being that moral distress is a subjective ethical phenomenon with a number of different causes and effects. This calls for interventions that are flexible and sensitive to individual's needs. To build an evidence-base, interventions should also be measurable and research methods need to be scientifically rigorous. To achieve rigor and innovation, researchers should clearly justify their methodological choices. Tweetable abstract: Interventions to mitigate moral distress: a systematic review of the literature. Educational interventions offer a promising direction but more research is needed.

Moral Resilience in Nursing Education: Exploring Undergraduate Nursing Students Perceptions of Resilience in Relation to Ethical Ideology

Introduction

Moral resilience has recently been proposed as one strategy to address moral distress in nurses and nursing students. Central to nursing students’ capacity for moral resilience is how they understood and enact resilience with an element of realism, suggesting an ethical, ideological influence. Resilience is shown to differ significantly across students, and possibly because of a disconnect between a students’ perceived resilience and their ethical ideology. Yet, resilience seldom has been explored in relation to ethical ideology.

Objective

This study aims to explore self-reported resilience in relation to ethical ideology in undergraduate nursing students, compare differences in scores, and explore relationships between study variables and selected demographic characteristics.

Methods

A descriptive cross-sectional research design was followed. An online encrypted survey was conducted among a convenient sample of nursing undergraduates who met the eligibility criteria and provided implied informed consent. This study complied with ethical principles outlined in the Canadian Tri-Council Policy Statement for research with human subjects. Ethical approval was secured from the University’s Research Ethics Board. Data were analyzed using mean scores, standard deviations, independent sample t-test, variance analysis with post hoc–testing, and Pearson correlation to explore differences in perceptions and associations between study and selected demographic variables.

Results

Undergraduate students have a high level of self-reported resilience. Statistically significant differences in self-reported resilience across selected demographic variables were observed. The association between resilience and ethical ideology was not significant. Ethical relativism was significantly correlated with age and year of study.

Conclusion

Findings suggest that faculty cultivating resilience in nursing students pays attention to gender’s influence discourses in students’ perceptions of resilience and ethical ideology and provides students with opportunities for ethical self-reflection and dialogue to critically examine their ethical ideological perspectives and the influence these may have on moral resilience development. Implications for future research are discussed.

Nursing Education: Students' Narratives of Moral Distress in Clinical Practice

BACKGROUND

Research indicates that newly graduated nurses are often unprepared for meeting challenging situations in clinical practice. This phenomenon is referred to as a "reality shock". This gap in preparedness may lead to moral distress. The aim of this article is to provide knowledge of moral distress in clinical nursing practice.

METHODS

Bachelor and further education nursing students were invited to write a story about challenging situations from their own clinical practice, resulting in 36 stories. Analysis was based on hermeneutical reading inspired by a narrative method; therefore, six stories were selected to represent the findings.

RESULTS

A finding across the stories is that the students knew the right thing to do but ended up doing nothing. Four themes were related to moral distress: (a) undermining of professional judgement, (b) disagreement concerning treatment and care, (c) undignified care by supervisors, and (d) colliding values and priorities of care.

CONCLUSION

Nursing education should emphasize to a greater extent ethical competency and training for the challenging situations students will encounter in clinical practice.

Surreal Becomes Real: Ethical Dilemmas Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic and Professional Identity Formation of Health Professionals

Fundamental quandaries of clinical and biomedical ethics for health care professionals, committees, and systems have been raised into stark relief by the COVID-19 pandemic. The nature and extent of critical issues raised by this ongoing crisis, including challenging ethical dilemmas for the health care profession, is likely to have an indelible impact on the professional identity formation (PIF) of learners and practitioners across the trajectory of the professional lifecycle. The lifelong process of PIF for health care practitioners, from learner through independent practice, is supported in medical education by intentional reflection, relationships within community of practice include guidance from mentoring, as well as resilience, both emotional and moral. We consider how grappling with ethical dilemmas related to the COVID-19 pandemic can challenge, inform, and even potentially transform the PIF process, thereby supporting development of a morally resilient, humanistic professional identity in health care trainees and health care professionals.

Moral distress: A theorized model of influences to facilitate mitigation and resilience

Moral distress results from the threat to professional moral integrity and identity. This phenomenon is well documented in nursing literature. Persistent and unresolved moral distress is frequently linked to high nursing staff turnover and shortages. Engagement in a structured hermeneutic critical reflective process facilitated identification of micro, meso, and macro factors influencing the experience of moral distress. Following this process, a theorized model was developed to illustrate interactions between influences contributing to the experience of moral distress in nurses. The model highlights where opportunities lay to take action to avoid or minimize the negative consequences of this phenomenon. Professional resilience is achieved via the conscientious development of professional identity and practice of critical reflection, as components of enculturation of nurses into the profession. Undergraduate and further nurse education activities must focus on developing the necessary attitude, confidence, and skills to address issues in practice which contribute to the experience moral distress to build resilience.

The development of moral sensitivity of nursing students: A scoping review

Moral sensitivity is known to be the starting point for moral competence and even is a core concept in the curricula for bachelor's-level nursing students in the Netherlands. While the development of moral sensitivity in nursing is commonly agreed to be important, there is no clear understanding of how to develop moral sensitivity through nursing education and what components of nursing education contribute to moral sensitivity. Studies on educational interventions could build knowledge about what works in developing moral sensitivity and how to achieve this outcome. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore if and how educational interventions contribute to the development of moral sensitivity in nursing students. A scoping review was conducted. Four electronic databases were searched: CINAHL, PubMed, MEDLINE and SpringerLink. Articles that were not about formal or initial nursing education and that had no link to moral development or moral sensitivity were excluded. After the final selection on educational interventions, 10 articles out of the initial 964 resources were included in the review. Three different but related dimensions of moral sensitivity emerged from the literature: (1) raising moral awareness, (2) providing the ability to frame and name ethical issues and (3) improving moral reasoning ability. Half of the studies used quantitative measures to evaluate the educational intervention, in particular the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire; the other half used diverse qualitative evaluation methods. None of the studies presented teaching methods that included all three dimensions of moral sensitivity. Moral awareness of self appears to be more loosely connected to the other two dimensions, which raises the question of whether it can be seen as a prerequisite for them. To encompass all dimensions of moral sensitivity, a mix of quantitative and qualitative measures seems most appropriate to study that topic.

Role of attitude in nurses' responses to requests for assisted dying

BACKGROUND

Legal assisted dying is a rare event, but as legalisation expands, requests for it will likely increase, and the nurse most often receives the informal, initial request.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the effects of attitude in interaction with normative and control beliefs on an intention to respond to a request for legal assisted dying.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The study had the lead author's institutional ethics approval, and participants were informed that participation was both anonymous and voluntary.

METHODOLOGY

This was a cross-sectional correlational study of 377 Australian registered nurses who completed an online survey. Generalised linear modelling assessed the effects of independent variables against intended responses to requests for legal assisted dying.

RESULTS

Compared to nurses who did not support legal assisted dying, nurses who did had stronger beliefs in patient rights, perceived social expectations to refer the request and stronger control in that intention. Nurses who did not support legal assisted dying had stronger beliefs in ethics of duty to the patient and often held dual intentions to discuss the request with the patient but also held an intention to deflect the request to consideration of alternatives.

DISCUSSION

This study advances the international literature by developing quantified models explaining the complexity of nurses' experiences with requests for an assisted death. Attitude was operationalised in interaction with other beliefs and was identified as the strongest influence on intentions, but significantly moderated by ethical norms.

CONCLUSION

The complex of determinants of those intentions to respond to requests for an assisted death suggests they are not isolated from each other. Nurses might have distinct intentions, but they can also hold multiple intentions even when they prioritise one. These findings present opportunities to prepare nurses in a way that enhances moral resilience in the face of complex moral encounters.

Resilience as an Incomplete Strategy for Coping With Moral Distress in Critical Care Nurses

TOPIC

Moral distress is receiving increasing attention in health care. The theoretical value of resilience as a strategy for coping with moral distress is prominent in the literature.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

The potential negative consequences of moral distress for nurses are indisputable, driving a push to identify interventions to help nurses deal with the experience. The evidence that resilience is an important quality and skill for maintaining wellness is equally clear.

PURPOSE

To review moral distress and resilience and examine the evidence for the new focus on resilience.

CONTENT COVERED

The complexity of both moral distress and resilience suggests that resilience by itself is an incomplete strategy for coping with and addressing moral distress.

Self-care strategies in response to nurses' moral injury during COVID-19 pandemic

These are strange and unprecedented times in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most frontline healthcare professionals have never witnessed anything like this before. As a result, staff may experience numerous and continuous traumatic events, which in many instances, will negatively affect their psychological well-being. Particularly, nurses face extraordinary challenges in response to shifting protocols, triage, shortages of resources, and the astonishing numbers of patients who require care in expedited time constraints. As most healthcare workers are passionate nursing professionals, frustration and often a sense of powerlessness occur when they find themselves unable to provide needed care to their patients. The overwhelming number of deaths, patients isolated and dying alone, and the ever-present fear of being infected and then infecting colleagues, family, friends due to the lack of protective gear or known protocols takes its toll on emotional and psychological well-being. For nurses, the experience of this significant (hopefully once-in-a-lifetime) event can inflict on-going moral injury. Nurses affected by this trauma require education, coping tools, and therapy to help avoid or alleviate the adverse effects on their well-being. Institutions must provide these resources to tend to the well-being of their healthcare staff, during and beyond the pandemic. This article aims to investigate moral distress—considering it as a moral injury—and offer tools and recommendations to support healthcare nurses as they respond to this crisis and its aftermath.

Midwifery students' reactions to ethical dilemmas encountered in outpatient clinics

BACKGROUND

Midwives are required to make ethical decisions with the support of respective codes of professional ethics which provide a framework for decision making in clinical practice. While each midwife should be ethically aware and sensitive to the ever-changing issues within reproduction, few empirical studies have examined the views of student midwives in relation to reproductive ethical dilemmas.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to explore midwifery students' reactions to a number of ethical dilemmas relating to women's experiences of reproductive decision making.

DESIGN

A series of focus groups were conducted with midwifery students who were asked to discuss five culturally significant scenarios including issues of knowledge acquisition regarding methods of family planning, removal or insertion of an intrauterine device, and abortion.

SETTING

A University in Turkey was the setting for this study.

PARTICIPANTS

Purposeful sampling was adopted which resulted in five focus groups with a total of 57 midwifery students.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The study was reviewed and granted formal ethical approval by an ethical committee at the Faculty of Health Science in Atatürk University. The head of the Faculty of Health Science approved the investigation. The participants received both oral and written information about the study and they gave their consent.

RESULTS

Five themes were identified from the analysis of the focus group data related to all five scenarios. These themes were 'the right to information', 'choice and protection', 'parental rights and welfare of the women', 'make a decision' and 'women rights and sexual abuse'.

CONCLUSION

This study has shown that while students respected women's choice, they also expressed great ambivalence in some situations when personal values conflict with dominant societal beliefs and professional ethics. A focus on ethics education to include human rights is suggested as a means to enable students to explore their own social-value judgements, and as a means to limit the possible development of ethical confusion and moral distress.

Moral resilience through harmonised connectedness in intensive care nursing: A grounded theory study

OBJECTIVES

To examine intensive care nurses' main concerns in respect of ethical practice, and to investigate how nurses continue to practise in an ethical way despite challenges in order to offer a conceptualisation of moral resilience.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY/DESIGN

This qualitative study followed Glaser and Strauss' version of grounded theory. The study was reviewed, and approved, by research ethics committees in Switzerland and in England.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Data consisted of field notes and in-depth interviews with 16 nurses working in intensive care in Switzerland and memos developed during the analysis. Data analysis followed the constant comparative method. This study took place between 2014 and 2017.

FINDINGS

This study identified new understanding in how intensive care nurses manage their concerns and challenges regarding moral practice. The main category for moral resilience is harmonising connectedness, which represents intensive care nurses' main concern with regard to their moral life, and at the same time, represents the pattern of behaviour in their social interactions and what they yearn for.

CONCLUSIONS

This study offers new insight into intensive care nurses' moral practice, moral resilience and strategies nurses use to achieve moral wellbeing.

Conceptualising moral resilience for nursing practice

The term 'moral resilience' has been gaining momentum in the nursing ethics literature. This may be due to it representing a potential response to moral problems such as moral distress. Moral resilience has been conceptualised as a factor that inhibits immoral actions, as a favourable outcome and as an ability to bounce back after a morally distressing situation. In this article, the philosophical analysis of moral resilience is developed by challenging these conceptualisations and highlighting the risks of such limiting perspectives. It is argued that moral resilience is best understood as a virtue with two associated vices, faintheartedness and rigidity. The intellectual virtue of practical wisdom is required to express resilience as a virtue. This understanding leads to recommendations for professional education, for practice and for further research.

Another Look at the Persistent Moral Problem of Emergency Department Crowding

This article revisits the persistent problem of crowding in US hospital emergency departments (EDs). It begins with a brief review of origins of this problem, terms used to refer to ED crowding, proposed definitions and measures of crowding, and causal factors. The article then summarizes recent studies that document adverse moral consequences of ED crowding, including poorer patient outcomes; increased medical errors; compromises in patient physical privacy, confidentiality, and communication; and provider moral distress. It describes several organizational strategies implemented to relieve crowding and implications of ED crowding for individual practitioners. The article concludes that ED crowding remains a morally significant problem and calls on emergency physicians, ED and hospital leaders, emergency medicine professional associations, and policymakers to collaborate on solutions.

Exploring moral problems and moral competences in midwifery: A qualitative study

Background:

Most undergraduate midwifery curricula comprise ethics courses to strengthen the moral competences of future midwives. By contrast, surprisingly little is known about the specific moral competences considered to be relevant for midwifery practice. Describing these competences not only depends on generic assumptions about the moral nature of midwifery practice but also reflects which issues practitioners themselves classify as moral.

Objective:

The goal of this study was to gain insight into the ethical issues midwives encounter in their daily work, the key competences and resources they consider indispensable to understand and deal with them, and to assess phenomena linked to moral distress.

Methods:

We conducted individual semi-structured interviews with eight midwives and two other health professionals, varying in terms of years of experience and work setting. Interview transcripts were analyzed in an interdisciplinary research group, following thematic analysis.

Ethical considerations:

This study was not subject to approval according to the Swiss Law on Research with Humans. Participants were informed about the study goals and gave written informed consent prior to participation.

Results:

External constraints limiting the midwife’s and the patient’s autonomy and resulting interpersonal conflicts were found to be the most relevant ethical issues encountered in clinical practice and were most often associated with moral distress. These conflicts often arise in the context of medical interventions midwives consider as not appropriate and situations in which less experienced midwives in particular observe a lack of both interprofessional communication and trust in their professional competence. Ethical issues related to late abortions or prenatal diagnostics and selective abortions were also frequently addressed, but many midwives involved had learned to cope with them.

Discussion:

In the light of the ethical issues and factors contributing to phenomena of moral distress, an empirically grounded profile of moral competences is drafted. Curricular implications in the light of possible adaptations within undergraduate midwifery education are critically discussed.

Interprofessionals' definitions of moral resilience

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To describe common characteristics and themes of the concept of moral resilience as reported by interprofessional clinicians in health care.

BACKGROUND

Research has provided an abundance of data on moral distress with limited research to resolve and help negate the detrimental effects of moral distress. This reveals a critical need for research on how to mitigate the negative consequences of moral distress that plague nurses and other healthcare providers. One promising direction is to build resilience as an individual strategy concurrently with interventions to build a culture of ethical practice.

DESIGN/METHODS

Qualitative descriptive methods were used to analyse descriptive definitions provided by 184 interprofessional clinicians in health care attending educational programmes in various locations as well as a small group of 23 professionals with backgrounds such as chaplaincy and nonhealthcare providers.

RESULTS

Three primary themes and three subthemes emerged from the data. The primary themes are integrity-personal and relational, and buoyancy. The subthemes are self-regulation, self-stewardship and moral efficacy.

CONCLUSIONS

Individual healthcare providers and healthcare systems can use this research to help negate the detrimental effects of moral distress by finding ways to develop interventions to cultivate moral resilience.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Moral resilience involves not only building and fostering the individual's capacity to navigate moral adversity but also developing systems that support a culture of ethical practice for healthcare providers.

Advancement of the German version of the moral distress scale for acute care nurses-A mixed methods study

AIM

Moral distress experienced by nurses in acute care hospitals can adversely impact the affected nurses, their patients and their hospitals; therefore, it is advisable for organizations to establish internal monitoring of moral distress. However, until now, no suitable questionnaire has been available for use in German-speaking contexts. Hence, the aim of this study was to develop and psychometrically test a German-language version of the Moral Distress Scale.

DESIGN

We chose a sequential explanatory mixed methods design, followed by a second quantitative cross-sectional survey.

METHODS

An American moral distress scale was chosen, translated, culturally adapted, tested in a pilot study and subsequently used in 2011 to conduct an initial web-based quantitative cross-sectional survey of nurses in all inpatient units at five hospitals in Switzerland's German-speaking region. Data were analysed descriptively and via a Rasch analysis. In 2012, four focus group interviews were conducted with 26 nurses and then evaluated using knowledge maps. The results were used to improve the questionnaire. In 2015, using the revised German-language instrument, a second survey and Rasch analysis were conducted.

RESULTS

The descriptive results of the first survey's participants (n = 2153; response rate: 44%) indicated that moral distress is a salient phenomenon in Switzerland. The data from the focus group interviews and the Rasch analysis produced information valuable for the questionnaire's further development. Alongside the data from the second survey's participants (n = 1965; response rate: 40%), the Rasch analysis confirmed the elimination of previous deficiencies on its psychometrics. A Rasch-scaled German version of the Moral Distress Scale is now available for use.

Ethics interventions for healthcare professionals and students: A systematic review

Background:

The ethics and value bases in healthcare are widely acknowledged. There is a need to improve and raise awareness of ethics in complex systems and in line with competing needs, different stakeholders and patients’ rights. Evidence-based strategies and interventions for the development of procedures and practice have been used to improve care and services. However, it is not known whether and to what extent ethics can be developed using interventions.

Objectives:

To examine ethics interventions conducted on healthcare professionals and healthcare students to achieve ethics-related outcomes.

Research design:

A systematic review.

Methods:

Five electronic databases were searched: CINAHL, the Cochrane Library, Philosopher’s Index, PubMed and PsycINFO. We searched for published articles written in English without a time limit using the keywords: ethic* OR moral* AND intervention OR program OR pre-post OR quasi-experimental OR rct OR experimental AND nurse OR nursing OR health care. In the four-phased retrieval process, 23 full texts out of 4675 citations were included in the review. Data were analysed using conventional content analysis.

Ethical consideration:

This systematic review was conducted following good scientific practice in every phase.

Findings:

It is possible to affect the ethics of healthcare practices through professionals and students. All the interventions were educational in type. Many of the interventions were related to the ethical or moral sensitivity of the professionals, such as moral courage and empowerment. A few of the interventions focused on identifying ethical problems or research ethics.

Conclusion:

Patient-related outcomes followed by organisational outcomes can be improved by ethics interventions targeting professionals. Such outcomes are promising in developing ethical safety for healthcare patients and professionals.

Remaining in the nursing profession: The relevance of strong evaluations

BACKGROUND:

Why nurses remain in the profession is a complex question. However, strong values can be grounds for their remaining, meaning nurses evaluate the qualitative worth of different desires and distinguish between senses of what is a good life.

RESEARCH QUESTION:

The overall aim is to explore and argue the relevance of strong evaluations for remaining in the nursing profession.

RESEARCH DESIGN:

This theoretical article based on a hermeneutical approach introduces the concept strong evaluations as described by the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor and provides examples of nurses' experiences in everyday nursing care drawn from a Norwegian empirical study.

PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT:

Data collected in the original study consisted of qualitative interviews and qualitative follow-up interviews with 13 nurses. The research context was the primary and secondary somatic and psychiatric health service, inside as well as outside institutions.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATION:

The article uses data from an original empirical study approved by the Norwegian Social Science Data Services. Information was given and consent obtained from the participants.

FINDINGS:

Remaining in the nursing profession can be understood as revolving around being a strong evaluator. This has been concretized in issues of being aware of different incidents in life and having capacities as a nurse.

DISCUSSION:

Why nurses remain is discussed in relation to how nurses have shaped themselves by reflecting on what is of significance in their life. However, being a strong evaluator cannot be seen as the casual condition for remaining.

CONCLUSION:

Remaining in the nursing profession is obviously not a contingent matter, rather it is a matter concerned with the qualitative worth of different desires and values. Nurses' awareness of a life choice impacts on whether they remain or not. Consequently, nurses may need to articulate and reflect on their priorities for remaining.