Evaluation of moral distress in NICU ward nurses

Background and Objectives: The accelerating rate of advances in biomedical technologies in recent decades has been increasing and there is a tendency for ethical issues. Nurses are one of the health workers who are constantly in a situation that requires decision making. They deal with a variety of stresses each day in their work environment. In the meantime, moral distress affect all aspects of professional and personal life. The purpose of this study was to determine nurses moral distress in a tertiary center in Guilan. Methods and materials: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. Samples include 140 individuals nurses working in in a tertiary center in Guilan that were recruited and the data were collected using a questionnaire whose validity and reliability have been measured in other studies. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential test including One-way ANOVA and chi-square. Results: The findings showed that the level of moral distress of the nurses was 0.541. There was also a significant relationship between age and work experience (p = 0.8), Interaction and scientific collaboration between physician and nurse (p = 0.1). Conclusions: Considering the degree of moral distress of participating nurses that it was high in the study, strategies to reduce it appear to be necessary including: Nurses membership in the hospital ethics committee, provision of guidance Counseling and expressing ethical stressful situations and training coping strategies with ethical distress can be helpful in this regard.

Keywords:

Moral distress , NICU ward , Nurses.