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. 2023 Mar;18(1):62-66.
doi: 10.1177/14777509211057251.

Moral distress among nurses in caring COVID-19 patients

Rosyidah Arafat  1 , Takdir Tahir  1 , Akbar Harisa  1
Affiliations

Moral distress among nurses in caring COVID-19 patients

Rosyidah Arafat et al. Clin Ethics. 2023 Mar.

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses experienced tremendous dilemmas including the need to perform their duties in caring for patients while they have concerns about contracting the disease. This study described the moral distress of nurses in-charge of handling COVID-19 patients which can be used as baseline data for intervention programs in overcoming moral distress among nurses. This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with nurses in-charge of handling COVID-19 treatment rooms. Before conducting the survey, ethical approval was obtained from the Medical Faculty of Universitas Hasanuddin. Questionnaires on moral distress for clinical nurses and the demographic data questionnaire were distributed to 128 respondents. These nurses experienced relatively low levels of moral distress despite the fact that they were generally exposed to morally stressful situations. Education background appeared as a factor influencing this condition, in which higher moral distress was mostly experienced by nurses with undergraduate education.

Keywords: COVID-19; Moral distress; caring; nurses; pandemic.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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