Moral distress och dess konsekvenser för sjuksköterskans yrkesutövning : Littersturstudie

Sammanfattning: The aim of the present literature study was to describe the significant factors contributing to the development of moral distress and the consequences of moral distress can lead to in the nurse profession. A literature search was performed in the databases Medline through PubMed and Academic Search Elite on the basis of in advanced defined criterions. A total of 19 articles was reviewed and included in the study. The main result revealed that nurses experience moral distress and that it is frequent within the nurse profession. The findings revealed that there seem to be several significant factors in the development of moral distress, such as providing life-sustaining care, competing loyalties, conflicts with the physician, communication barriers, emotional barriers, cultural barriers, regulation and rules and working environment that gives the nurse difficult or unsolved ethical dilemmas. The consequences of moral distress can contribute to health problems both physical symptoms and mentally, such as headache, neck and muscle pain, stomach problems, depression, anger and guilt. Moral distress affects the nurse professionally, and contributes to distancing from patients, relatives and colleagues, a resistance against going to work and to perform work tasks. The conclusion is that the consequences of moral distress don’t just affect nurses but undeniably also patients, relatives and other instances in within the healthcare system.