Moral Distress of Nurses in Emergency Department of Ardabil Hospitals in 1395

Background & objectives: Nurses, as the main members of the care and treatment teams, are at the forefront of health care provision and their performance largely determine the quality of health care. Moral distress can have many physical and psychological consequences in nurses and negatively affect their professional responsibilities. The aim of this study was to determine the extent of moral distress in nurses of emergency department of Ardabil hospitals in 2016. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was carried out on 175 nurses, working in the emergency department of hospitals in Ardabil city, who were selected using a census sampling. The data gathering tools were demographic questionnaire and moral distress questionnaire for nurses. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation and frequency) and inferential statistics (one-way ANOVA) were used to analyze the data. Results: The findings indicated that mean and standard deviation of moral distress in nurses of emergency departments were in moderate level (1.87±0.89). Moral distress in nurses of emergency departments was higher than other departments in terms of non-observance of ethical principles (2.00±1.02). Among evaluated variables, there were significant positive correlations between service record, work shift, employment status and type of hospital with moral distress (p<0.05). Conclusion: Regarding to moderate moral distress level in emergency nurses participating in this study, the managers of the organization should adopt the necessary methods and measures to identify the symptoms and detect the factors affecting the moral distress of nurses.