title: Moral distress and avoidance behavior in nurses working in critical care and noncritical care units.
abstract: Nurses facing impediments to what they perceive as moral practice may experience moral distress. The purpose of this descriptive, cross-sectional study was to determine similarities and differences in moral distress and avoidance behavior between critical care nurses and non-critical care nurses. Sixty-eight critical care and 28 non-critical care nurses completed the Moral Distress Scale and Impact of Event Scale (IES). There were no differences in moral distress scores (F = 0.892, p = 0.347) or impact of event scores (F = 3.80, p = 0.054) between groups after adjusting for age. There was a small positive correlation between moral distress and avoidance behaviors for both the groups. Moral distress is present in both critical care and noncritical care nurses. It is important that nurses are provided with opportunities to cope with this distress and that retention strategies include ways to reduce suffering and mitigate the effects on professional practice.
authors.affiliation: Professional Program in Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, 2420 Nicolet Drive, Green Bay, WI 54311-7001, USA. devillem@uwgb.edu
authors.forename: Mary Jo
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: De Villers
authors.forename: Holli A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: DeVon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003422:Critical Care / Q000941:ethics*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016294:Models, Nursing; D009014:Morals; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000592:standards; D012424:Rural Population; D012956:Societies, Nursing; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult