The role of perceived organizational support for nurses' ability to handle and resolve ethical value conflicts: A mixed methods study.

J Adv Nurs

Occupational and Environmental Medicine, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Published: February 2024

AI Article Synopsis

  • The study investigates how nurses' perception of organizational support influences their ability to navigate ethical conflicts.
  • A mix of surveys and focus groups was used to gather data from 711 nurses across six hospitals in Sweden, revealing that perceived support decreases the occurrence of ethical value conflicts but doesn't alleviate the moral distress associated with them.
  • The findings suggest that enhancing perceived organizational support can empower nurses and improve their work experience, while also calling for measures to decrease unresolved ethical conflicts.

Article Abstract

Aim: To explore if and how nurses' perceived organizational support affects their ability to handle and resolve ethical value conflicts.

Design: A mixed methods design with a longitudinal questionnaire survey and focus group interviews.

Methods: A questionnaire survey in six hospitals in two Swedish regions provided data from 711 nurses responding twice (November-January 2019/2020 and November-January 2020/2021). A cross-lagged path model tested the mutual prospective influence between the organizational climate of perceived organizational support, frequency of ethical value conflicts, and resulting moral distress. Four focus group interviews were conducted with 21 strategically selected nurses (April-October 2021). Qualitative data collection and analysis were inspired by Grounded Theory.

Results: A climate of perceived organizational support was empowering, contributing to role security. It prospectively decreased the frequency of ethical value conflicts but not the moral distress when conflicts did occur.

Conclusion: It is important to facilitate the development of perceived organizational support among nurses, but also to reduce the occurrence of ethical value conflicts that the nurses cannot resolve.

Implications For The Profession: By ensuring a shared care ideology, good inter-professional relations within the entire care organization, providing clear and supportive organizational structures, and utilizing competence adequately, healthcare managers can facilitate and support the development of perceived organizational support among nurses. Nurses who are empowered by perceived organizational support are stimulated by and take pride in their work and experience the work as meaningful and joyful.

Impact: The study addressed the question of whether healthcare organizations could support nurses to resolving ethical value conflicts, and thus reduce moral distress. Perceived organizational support is related to factors such as ideological caring alignment and supportive organizational preconditions. This study contributes specific knowledge about how healthcare organizations can empower nurses to effectively resolve ethical value conflicts and thereby reduce their moral distress.

Patient Or Public Contribution: No patient or public contribution.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jan.15889DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

perceived organizational
32
organizational support
32
ethical conflicts
24
resolve ethical
12
moral distress
12
support nurses
12
organizational
11
support
10
ability handle
8
handle resolve
8

Similar Publications

Background: Firearm or gun violence has become a significant and ongoing public health crisis in the United States. There is little evidence of the current practices of nurses in assessing, screening, and counseling patients and families on firearm ownership and safety.

Objectives: The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to explore the attitudes, perceptions, and current practices in assessing, screening, and counseling gun ownership and safety among registered nurses, with a secondary aim of identifying the facilitators and barriers to implementing the practice.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative effect on population mental health. Medical students may have been particularly affected, whom prevalence of mental health conditions was already high before the pandemic hit, due to the difficult and stressful academic programme. In Northern Ireland specifically, mental well-being levels are the lowest across the UK; however limited research exists examining the medical student cohort.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: As an umbrella term, social prescribing offers varied routes into society which promise to support, enhance, and empower individual citizens to take control of their own health and wellbeing. Globally healthcare systems are struggling to cope with the increasing demands of an ageing population and the NHS (UK) is no exception. Social prescribing is heralded as a means to relieve the burden on primary care and provide support for the 20% of patients whose needs are non-medical.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) collects real-time data in daily life, enhancing ecological validity and reducing recall bias. An EMA questionnaire that measures symptoms and transdiagnostic factors was recently developed with network modeling purposes. This study examines this EMA protocol's (a) subjective experience (e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Boomerasking: Answering your own questions.

J Exp Psychol Gen

January 2025

Department of Strategy and Organisational Behaviour, Imperial College London.

Humans spend much of their lives in conversation, where they tend to hold many simultaneous motives. We examine two fundamental desires: to be responsive to a partner and to disclose about oneself. We introduce one pervasive way people attempt to reconcile these competing goals--a sequence in which individuals first pose a question to their conversation partner ("How was your weekend?"), let their partner answer, and then answer the question themselves ("Mine was amazing!").

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!