Nurses' moral distress in end-of-life care: A qualitative study

Abstract

Background: Moral distress is a neglected issue in most palliative education programmes, and research has largely focused on this phenomenon as an occupational problem for nursing staff.

Research question: The primary outcome of this study was to explore the causes of morally distressing events, feelings experienced by nurses and coping strategies utilised by a nursing population at an Italian teaching hospital. A secondary outcome of this qualitative study was to analyse whether palliative care or end-of-life care education may reduce morally distressing events.

Research design: A hermeneutic-phenomenological qualitative study was performed.

Participants and research context: Participants were recruited through snowball sampling. The interviews were conducted and recorded by one interviewer and transcribed verbatim.

Ethical considerations: Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Hospital Board.

Findings: Six main themes emerged from the interview analyses: (1) the causes of moral distress; (2) feelings and emotions experienced during morally distressing events; (3) factors that affect the experience of moral distress; (4) strategies for coping with moral distress; (5) recovering from morally distressing events; and (6) end-of-life accompaniment. Varying opinions regarding the usefulness of palliative care education existed. Some nurses stated that participation in end-of-life courses did not help them cope with morally distressing events in the ward, and they believe that existing courses should be strengthened and better structured.

Discussion: In this study, moral distress was often associated with poor communication or a lack of communication between healthcare professionals and the patients and/or their relatives and with the inability to satisfy the patients' last requests. According to our findings, the concept of 'good' end-of-life accompaniment was extremely important to our sample for the prevention of morally distressing events.

Conclusion: Nurses who work in the onco-haematological setting frequently experience moral distress. Determining the causes of moral distress at early stages is of paramount importance for finding a solution.

Keywords: End-of-life; moral distress; nursing staff; psychological stress; qualitative study.