title: Moral Distress among Iranian Nurses.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to describe the moral distress among Iranian registered nurses.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a descriptive -analytic study, in which 264 out of 1000 nurses were randomly selected as a sample group and completed the questionnaire. The nurses' moral distress was assessed using Corley's 30-item Moral Distress Scale adapted for use in an Iranian population. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS version 19.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, no correlation was found between the level of moral distress and any of the demographic data. The mean moral distress score ranged from 3.56 to 5.83, indicating moderate to high levels of moral distress. The item with the highest mean score was "working with unsafe levels of nurse staffing". The item with the lowest mean score was "giving medication intravenously to a patient who has refused to take it". Nurses working in EMS and NICU units had the highest levels of moral distress.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A higher degree of moral distress is observed among nurses who work in health care systems. The results of this study highly recommend practical and research-oriented evaluation of moral distress in the medical society in Iran. Our findings suggest that Iranian version of MDS is a reliable instrument to measure moral distress in nurses.
authors.affiliation: School of Health, Safety and Environment, School of Health Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Hosein
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Vaziri
authors.affiliation: Iranian National Center for Addiction Studies(INCAS), Instituion of Risk Behavior Reduction Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Effat
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Merghati-Khoei
authors.affiliation: School of Health, Safety and Environment, School of Health Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Shahnaz
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tabatabaei
keywords: EMS; Iranian Nurses; Moral Distress Scale (MDS); NICU