Critical care nurses, ethical decision-making and stress.
Considerable attention has focused on describing ethical issues that critical care nurses face in their practice: however, less attention has been directed at describing the process of ethical decision-making. Systematic research linking aspects of ethical-decision making and stress is lacking. This cross-sectional study examines the relationship between selected aspects of ethical decision-making, stress and selected nurse characteristics. Sixty-one critical care nurses completed the Nurse's Ethical Decision Making--ICU Questionnaire and the Health Professions Stress Inventory. Findings revealed that nurses who selected the patient advocacy model had significantly higher nurse autonomy scores, that perceived anxiety had a negative association with nurse autonomy, and that workplace restrictions and stress were related.
Erlen
J A
JA
School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Sereika
S M
SM
D000328:Adult; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000523:psychology*; D003422:Critical Care; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003657:Decision Making; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007587:Job Description; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016294:Models, Nursing; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D017009:Professional Autonomy; D012309:Risk-Taking; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires