Education and Ethics In Nursing ISSN: 2322-5300

The relationship between nurses' moral distress and their commitment to professional ethics among nurses working in Arak (2023)

https://doi.org/10.22034/ethic.2024.2037473.1103
Volume 13, 3-4
July 2024
Pages 137-145
Education and Ethics In Nursing ISSN: 2322-5300

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Nadia Firouzi 1
Maryam Radmehr 2
Meysam Sanjari 3

1 Nursing Student of Master Degree. Community Health Research Center, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

2 Associate Professor. Community Health Research Center, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

3 Medical student, Faculty of Medicine, Najaf Abad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najaf Abad, Iran

Abstract
Introduction: Moral distress is consecutively observed as a result of moral decisions in nurses. Increasing commitment to professional ethics codes and rituals can help nurses in making ethical decisions. This research was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between nurses' moral distress and their commitment to professional ethics code among nurses working in Arak, 2023.
Methods & Materials: In this descriptive-analytical study, 135 nurses from the selected hospitals of Arak, including Valiasr Hospital, Taleghani Hospital, and Amirul Mominin Hospital, were selected on a quota basis and available in 2023. Corelli's moral distress tool (2002) and measuring nurses' performance according to Pour Zanjani et al.'s nursing code of ethics (2013) were used to collect data. The data were analyzed after being collected by descriptive and inferential tests with SPSS software version 26.
Results: In this research, 73.3% of the samples were male and 26.7% were female with an average age of 33.5±18.65 years. The majority of nurses were employed in the emergency department and 88.9% had a bachelor's degree. The results showed that the level of moral distress in half of the nurses was high. In this study, there was an inverse and significant relationship between nurses' moral distress and compliance with professional ethics (p < 0.001, r = -0.425). The results showed that the lowest level of commitment and performance to the professional ethics of nurses was in the dimension of education and research.
Conclusion: The findings of the present study showed that the average level of moral distress in nurses was not at the desired level, and the increase in moral distress is related to the decrease in commitment to the rules of professional ethics. Therefore, it is suggested that the managers of medical centers pay more attention to the implementation of professional ethics by nurses.

Keywords

Moral Distress
Professional Ethics
Nurse
Commitment
Subjects
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