Moral Distress of Critical Care Nurses

PMFB-RN, RN · Jul 18, 2013

I am a graduate nursing student and I am conducting research on the moral distress experiences of critical care nurses. The aim of this research is to determine if gender differences exist in the experiences of moral distress.
If you work in a critical care setting, you are invited to complete a brief online survey. This completely anonymous survey is expected to take no more than 10 minutes to complete.
If you would like to participate, simply go to:
https://allnurses.com/academic-nursing-research/attention-critical-care-844400.html#post7433785
The survey consists of 21 items and several demographic data questions.
Directions for completing the survey will be provided.
This is an anonymous survey and no individual identifying information will be recorded.
Thank you!

*** The wording of the questions is strange and makes them difficult to answer. Example questions 12:

12. Follow the family's request not to discuss death with a dying patient who asks about dying.

Difficult to answer since I NEVER follow those families wishes, however that doesn't mean I don't feel moral distress when faced with the request from the family. A nurse who is their patient's advocate and refuses such family request, but feels moral distress when pressure is put on her to do so would have to answer your question "never/none" despite feeling considerable moral distress.

There are a number of questions like that where the nurse is put into a position of feeling significant moral distress, yet at the same time NOT preforming the actions you are asking about.

I wasn't able to complete the survey. If the questions were re-worded to say something like:

"Feel pressure to follow the family's request not to discuss death with a dying patient who asks about dying"

The could be answered more honestly.

coconne, MSN, RN · Jul 19, 2013

Thanks for your feedback. However, the survey was authored, validated and shown reliable through extensive research by Drs. Corley, Elswich, Gorman, Chlor, Hamric, Borchers and Epstein. The directions for completing the survey, as well as the survey items, have all been tested thoroughly.

As you can see, the items are not questioning your actions, rather your feelings when and the frequency with which you have experienced each situation.

chare · Jul 19, 2013

If you work in a critical care setting, you are invited to complete a brief online survey.

You should revise your post to state tthat this survey is for adult critical care nurses only.

PMFB-RN, RN · Jul 20, 2013

Thanks for your feedback. However, the survey was authored, validated and shown reliable through extensive research by Drs. Corley, Elswich, Gorman, Chlor, Hamric, Borchers and Epstein. The directions for completing the survey, as well as the survey items, have all been tested thoroughly.
As you can see, the items are not questioning your actions, rather your feelings when and the frequency with which you have experienced each situation.

*** (Shrug) OK. If you wish to weed out the nurses who are good patient advocates, regardless of the moral distress they feel in those situations, I guess that's up to you.