Moral Distress in Nursing With Example

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals have been recognized as heroes. Many have likened them to soldiers in battle; even before its pandemic started, health care workers were being compared with combat veterans, each having the potential for “moral trauma” or distress.

Distress in morals occurs when an individual feels helpless to take ethically sound actions, which prevents patients from receiving high-quality healthcare services. Sometimes, it may not even be possible to do what’s best for one patient because doing what would benefit them would conflict with doing what would help an organization, another provider who gives primary care to other patients, or family members in conflict with your best interest—moral injury results from repeated occurrence of moral distress with long-lasting repercussions. ATI nursing school for nursing students helps to get the proper knowledge about moral distress in nursing with examples.

Distinguish between an ethical dilemma and moral distress when practicing medicine. While ethical dilemmas are an accepted part of practice, when they become moral dilemma, they should be dealt with accordingly. Ethical distress occurs when there are at least two ethically justified actions with no obvious solution, potentially prompting heated discussions among health care providers whose sole aim is quality of care delivery. Distress in morals manifests itself when providers know the appropriate actions but cannot take any.

Moral distressing issues faced by healthcare professionals, from critical care nurses and doctors to pharmacists, psychologists for psychological distress, social workers, nutritionists, and chaplains. According to research findings, moral distress may arise from different sources depending on which subspecialty one works in.

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Some of the Primary Sources of Moral Distress Among Nurses With Example of Moral Distress in Nursing Include:

Life support should continue even when life support is not in the patient’s best interests. Communication among patients, families, and providers about end-of-life care needs to be improved—unappropriated use of healthcare resources. Staff who need more training or qualifications provide more critical care. Patients do not receive sufficient pain relief. Survivors and their loved ones are given erroneous hope.

Here are some familiar sources of moral distress among physicians:

• Financial considerations: the need to profit and generate income.
• Electronic health records (EHRs): EHRs can be seen as inconvenient when providing face-to-face long-term care, yet can prove extremely valuable in other aspects.
• Risk: Over-testing, analysis, and response to litigation can increase risk.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused health care professionals tremendous moral distress with its shift from outpatient clinicians to public health ethics rapidly emerging during the pandemic. Following are examples of moral distress in nursing that highlight this moral distress

Staying abreast of constantly shifting protocols can be impossible, and families must endure being told they cannot visit loved ones before watching them die alone. Lacking protective equipment could result in the treatment of patients for patient care without adequate protection.

Due to limited resources and high patient volumes, it may only sometimes be feasible to follow proper protocols and bedside protocols.

Moral distress is defined by feelings of frustration, anger, hopelessness, and isolation; they may feel powerless to change their circumstance or consider quitting their job or nursing profession altogether.

Solutions have been offered to combat moral distress in healthcare. Among them is collaboration among practitioners and leadership of organizations; when working together, different subspecialty practitioners should become aware of each other’s moral distress. Potential solutions also include:

Identify the problem, gather facts, and voice your concerns. Find people willing to assist and speak in one authoritative voice. Focus on changes within the workplace rather than individual patients, as repeated issues exist across many organizational positions. Join the best nursing schools in Illinois for nursing programs to identify the basic problems related to moral distress in the nursing career.

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Attend forums and discussions on distress in morale. They should be multi-disciplinary as multiple perspectives are essential in improving any system, as complex as hospital units & nursing homes or intensive care units.