Moral Distress in Pre-hospital Emergency Technicians: A Cross-sectional Study in Iran

Emergency medical services (EMS) personnel are subject to moral hazards during work, leading them to find moral distress (MD). Our literature review showed a gap in knowledge related to MD in EMS personnel. Therefore, this study investigated MD and its influential factors in pre-hospital emergency technicians.

This descriptive-analytic study was conducted in Iran in 2017. A convenience sampling method was used to select 265 technicians working in EMS from several cities in Iran. The MD thermometer was used to measure the MD in the technicians. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software, version 20.

All the participants were male with mean age and work experience of 31.64±6.5 and 7.76±5.1 years, respectively. The mean score of MD was 4.6±1.8 (out of 10). Nearly 76% of the participants were with moderate levels of MD. A significant relationship was observed between the willingness of technicians to change or leave their job and the mean scores of MD in the participants.

EMS technicians experienced moderate levels of MD. Therefore, healthcare planners and policymakers need to pay more attention to this issue due to the complications of MD in healthcare personnel.