Nurses' moral distress in end-of-life care: A qualitative study.

Abstract:

BACKGROUND:Moral distress is a neglected issue in most palliative education programmes, and research has largely focused on this phenomenon as an occupational problem for nursing staff. RESEARCH QUESTION:The primary outcome of this study was to explore the causes of morally distressing events, feelings experienced by nurses and coping strategies utilised by a nursing population at an Italian teaching hospital. A secondary outcome of this qualitative study was to analyse whether palliative care or end-of-life care education may reduce morally distressing events. RESEARCH DESIGN:A hermeneutic-phenomenological qualitative study was performed. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT:Participants were recruited through snowball sampling. The interviews were conducted and recorded by one interviewer and transcribed verbatim. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS:Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Hospital Board. FINDINGS:Six main themes emerged from the interview analyses: (1) the causes of moral distress; (2) feelings and emotions experienced during morally distressing events; (3) factors that affect the experience of moral distress; (4) strategies for coping with moral distress; (5) recovering from morally distressing events; and (6) end-of-life accompaniment. Varying opinions regarding the usefulness of palliative care education existed. Some nurses stated that participation in end-of-life courses did not help them cope with morally distressing events in the ward, and they believe that existing courses should be strengthened and better structured. DISCUSSION:In this study, moral distress was often associated with poor communication or a lack of communication between healthcare professionals and the patients and/or their relatives and with the inability to satisfy the patients' last requests. According to our findings, the concept of 'good' end-of-life accompaniment was extremely important to our sample for the prevention of morally distressing events. CONCLUSION:Nurses who work in the onco-haematological setting frequently experience moral distress. Determining the causes of moral distress at early stages is of paramount importance for finding a solution.

journal_name

Nurs Ethics

journal_title

Nursing ethics

authors

De Brasi EL,Giannetta N,Ercolani S,Gandini ELM,Moranda D,Villa G,Manara DF

doi

10.1177/0969733020964859

subject

Has Abstract

pub_date

2020-12-03 00:00:00

pages

969733020964859

eissn

0969-7330

issn

1477-0989

pub_type

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