Moral distress in the nurse's practical action: A descriptive - cross sectional study

Moral distress is a common phenomenon in the nursing which can affect nurse's work life and a make a different impact on employees, patients and healthcare organizations. The present study is a cross-sectional study which has investigated the moral distress in 220 nurses in Birjand educational hospitals by Corley moral distress scale. This questionnaire has 21 question and has been translated and calculated, the validity was determined 88% and the reliably (Cronbach Alfa) 93%.The results indicate that the average intensity of moral distress in subjects is 25/2 (from 0-5) and the average of repeat is 11/2 (from 0-5) respectively. There is significant relationship between moral distress and demographic characteristics of the type of service (P <0/05). But this relationship would not make any sense in the type of employment and the sex of nurses (P>0/50). Due to the high intensity level of moral distress in nurses, paying more attention to familiarize them with the emergence of the phenomenon and its causes must be considered.