title: Moral Agency, Moral Imagination, and Moral Community: Antidotes to Moral Distress.
abstract: Moral distress has been covered extensively in the nursing literature and increasingly in the literature of other health professions. Cases that cause nurses' moral distress that are mentioned most frequently are those concerned with prolonging the dying process. Given the standard of aggressive treatment that is typical in intensive care units (ICUs), much of the existing moral distress research focuses on the experiences of critical care nurses. However, moral distress does not automatically occur in all end-of-life circumstances, nor does every critical care nurse suffer its damaging effects. What are the practices of these nurses? What specifically do they do to navigate around or through the distressing situations? The nursing literature is lacking an answer to these questions. This article reports a study that used narrative analysis to explore the reported practices of experienced critical care nurses who are skilled at and comfortable working with families and physicians regarding the withdrawal of aggressive treatment. A major finding was that these nurses did not report experiencing the damaging effects of moral distress as described in the nursing literature. The verbal communication and stated practices relevant to this finding are organized under three major themes: (1) moral agency, (2) moral imagination, and (3) moral community. Further, a total of eight subthemes are identified. The practices that constitute these themes and subthemes are further detailed and discussed in this article. Understanding these practices can help mitigate critical care nurses' moral distress.
authors.affiliation: 6420 Indian Hills Road, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55439 USA. trau0116@umn.edu.
authors.forename: Terri
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Traudt
authors.affiliation: University of Minnesota, Center for Bioethics, N504 Boynton, 410 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 USA. jliasch@umn.edu.
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liaschenko
authors.affiliation: University of Minnesota School of Nursing, 6-109 Weaver Densford Hall, 308 Harvard Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 USA. Peden001@umn.edu.
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Peden-McAlpine
mesh_terms: D003422:Critical Care; D003657:Decision Making; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009014:Morals; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D028761:Withholding Treatment / Q000941:ethics*