Investigating the Level of Moral Distress and Factors Affecting it in the Nurses of Accidents and Emergency Department

The emergency department is often associated with congestion and high workload. Emergency nurses usually experience situations that lead to moral challenges, and one of its consequences is moral distress, defined as the most important hidden job challenge among emergency nurses. This study was conducted with the aim of determining nurses’ level of moral distress and factors affecting it in the accidents and emergency department. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 nurses working in the emergency department of hospitals in Semnan and Sabzevar, Iran. They were asked to complete the moral distress and demographic questionnaires by self-reporting. The data was analyzed with SPSS 22 using independent t-test and analysis of variance. The mean age of the participants was 32.20 ± 7.2 years. The overall score of moral distress was 54.61 ± 10.1, which shows a low level of moral distress in these public hospitals. The lowest level of moral distress was related to high job satisfaction while the highest score of moral distress was related to unfavorable relationship between nurses and doctors. Considering the negative effects caused by moral distress on the quality of nursing care, it is necessary for managers of organizations to take necessary measures to identify the symptoms of moral distress in nurses and take a positive step towards reducing it by interventions and, as a result, increase the quality of services provided to patients.