Critical care nurse leaders' moral distress: A qualitative descriptive study.

Background: Unit-based critical care nurse leaders (UBCCNL) play a role in exemplifying ethical leadership, addressing moral distress, and mitigating contributing factors to moral distress on their units. Despite several studies examining the experience of moral distress by bedside nurses, knowledge is limited regarding the UBCCNL's experience.

Research Aim: The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of Alabama UBCCNLs regarding how they experience, cope with, and address moral distress.

Critical care nurse leaders addressing moral distress: A qualitative study.

Background: Moral distress (MD) occurs when clinicians are constrained from taking what they believe to be ethically appropriate actions. When unattended, MD may result in moral injury and/or suffering. Literature surrounding how unit-based critical care nurse leaders address MD in practice is limited.

Moral distress among nurse leaders: A qualitative systematic review.

Moral distress (MD) is well-documented within the nursing literature and occurs when constraints prevent a correct course of action from being implemented. The measured frequency of MD has increased among nurses over recent years, especially since the COVID-19 Pandemic. MD is less understood among nurse leaders than other populations of nurses.

Adaptation and validation of the Brazilian version of the Measure of Moral Distress for Healthcare Professionals (MMD-HP BR) in the context of palliative care.

Background: The Measure of Moral Distress for Health Care Professionals (MMD-HP) scale corresponds to the update of the globally recognized Moral Distress Scale-Revised (MDS-R). Its purpose is to measure moral distress, which is a type of suffering caused in a professional prevented from acting according to one's moral convictions due to external or internal barriers. Thus, this study has the objective to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the Brazilian version of the MMD-HP BR in the context of Palliative Care (PC).

Moral distress among nurses: A mixed-methods study.

Background: Moral distress is recognized as a problem affecting healthcare professionals globally. Unaddressed moral distress may lead to withdrawal from the moral dimensions of patient care, burnout, or leaving the profession. Despite the importance, studies related to moral distress are scant in Thailand.

Effect of a Moral Distress Consultation Service on Moral Distress, Empowerment, and a Healthy Work Environment.

Background:  Healthcare providers who are accountable for patient care safety and quality but who are not empowered to actualize them experience moral distress. Interventions to mitigate moral distress in the healthcare organization are needed.

Objective:  To evaluate the effect on moral distress and clinician empowerment of an established, health-system-wide intervention, Moral Distress Consultation.

Moral Distress, Mattering, and Secondary Traumatic Stress in Provider Burnout: A Call for Moral Community.

Burnout incurs significant costs to health care organizations and professionals. Mattering, moral distress, and secondary traumatic stress are personal experiences linked to burnout and are byproducts of the organizations in which we work. This article conceptualizes health care organizations as moral communities-groups of people united by a common moral purpose to promote the well-being of others.

Moral distress experienced by non-Western nurses: An integrative review.

Background: Moral distress has been identified as a significant issue in nursing practice for many decades. However, most studies have involved American nurses or Western medicine settings. Cultural differences between Western and non-Western countries might influence the experience of moral distress.

Palliative Care and Moral Distress: An Institutional Survey of Critical Care Nurses.

Background: The need for palliative care in the intensive care unit is increasing. Whether gaps and variations in palliative care education and use are associated with moral distress among critical care nurses is unknown.

Objectives: To examine critical care nurses' perceived knowledge of palliative care, their recent experiences of moral distress, and possible relationships between these variables.

Enhancing Understanding of Moral Distress: The Measure of Moral Distress for Health Care Professionals.

Background: As ongoing research explores the impact of moral distress on health care professionals (HCPs) and organizations and seeks to develop effective interventions, valid and reliable instruments to measure moral distress are needed. This article describes the development and testing of a revision of the widely used Moral Distress Scale-Revised (MDS-R) to measure moral distress.

Methods: We revised the MDS-R by evaluating the combined data from 22 previous studies, assessing 301 write-in items and 209 root causes identified through moral distress consultation, and reviewing 14 recent publications from various professions in which root causes were described.

Looking at the Positive Side of Moral Distress: Why It's a Problem.

Moral distress, is, at its core, an organizational problem. It is experienced on a personal level, but its causes originate within the system itself. In this commentary, we argue that moral distress is not inherently good, that effective interventions must address the external sources of moral distress, and that while there is a place for resilience in the healthcare professions, it cannot be an effective antidote to moral distress.

Integrative Review of Technology to Support Communication With Parents of Infants in the NICU.

Objective: To synthesize findings from the published literature on the use of technology in the NICU to improve communications and interactions among health care providers, parents, and infants.

Data Sources: Electronic databases including Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched for related research published through May 2016. The reference lists of all studies were reviewed, and a hand search of key journals was also conducted to locate eligible studies.

A Health System-wide Moral Distress Consultation Service: Development and Evaluation.

Although moral distress is now a well-recognized phenomenon among all of the healthcare professions, few evidence-based strategies have been published to address it. In morally distressing situations, the "presenting problem" may be a particular patient situation, but most often signals a deeper unit- or system-centered issue. This article describes one institution's ongoing effort to address moral distress in its providers.

A preliminary evaluation of trust and shared decision making among intensive care patients' family members.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to preliminarily evaluate ICU family members' trust and shared decision making using modified versions of the Wake Forest Trust Survey and the Shared Decision Making-9 Survey.

Methods: Using a descriptive approach, the perceptions of family members of ICU patients (n=69) of trust and shared decision making were measured using the Wake Forest Trust Survey and the 9-item Shared Decision Making (SDM-9) Questionnaire. Both surveys were modified slightly to apply to family members of ICU patients and to include perceptions of nurses as well as physicians.

Testing the Feasibility of Skype and FaceTime Updates With Parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Background: Effective provider-parent relationships are essential during critical illness when treatment decisions are complex, the environment is crowded and unfamiliar, and outcomes are uncertain.

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility of daily Skype or FaceTime updates with parents of patients in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and to assess the intervention's potential for improving parent-provider relationships.

Methods: A pre/post mixed-methods approach was used.

Moral distress among healthcare professionals: report of an institution-wide survey.

Purpose: Moral distress is a phenomenon affecting many professionals across healthcare settings. Few studies have used a standard measure of moral distress to assess and compare differences among professions and settings.

Design: A descriptive, comparative design was used to study moral distress among all healthcare professionals and all settings at one large healthcare system in January 2011.

Parents' perceptions of continuity of care in the neonatal intensive care unit: pilot testing an instrument and implications for the nurse-parent relationship.

Nurse-parent relationships are a key aspect of high-quality family-centered care in the neonatal intensive care unit. Few studies have examined nursing continuity of care that includes (a) chronological continuity, that is, the number of nurses caring for an infant over time, (b) the consistency of information transferred to the parent and colleagues, and (c) the consistency of interactions between parent and nurse as an important factor in the nurse-parent relationship. The aims of this pilot study were to develop and test a scale of parental perceptions of nursing continuity of care in the newborn intensive care setting and to characterize the association between parents' perceptions and chronological nursing continuity.