Moral distress among nurses working in Covid-19 wards: a cross-sectional study in 2021

Abstract Background Covid-19 is an emerging disease, which has confronted nurses with new moral distress. This study aims to determine the moral distress and its related factors among nurses working in the covid-19 wards of Ardabil city in Iran. Methods This cross-sectional descriptive study evaluated 159 nurses working in the covid-19 wards of Imam Khomeini hospital -as the only hospitalization center for the patients with covid-19 in Ardabil, 2021. The instruments used included a personal-occupational information form and Corley's moral distress scale. Data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient, independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance) in SPSS v22. Results The mean and standard deviation of the frequency and intensity of the nurses' moral distress were estimated 52.28 ± 5.24 and 51.54 ± 5.86, respectively, which indicated the moderate level of moral distress in the both dimensions. The item "I hesitate to tell the patient or the patient's family about his condition and treatment" (4.74 ± 0.75) showed the most moral distress based on the intensity and the phrase "too much work reduces the quality of my work” (4.81 ± 0.55) caused the most moral distress in the frequency dimension. The results indicated a significant relationship between the intensity and frequency of moral distress with the type of nurses' employment (P < 0.05). Moreover, a significant relationship was observed between the nurses’ position and the frequency (P = 0.04), and the nurses’ work experience and the intensity of moral distress (P = 0.02). Conclusions It seems that providing the necessary training for how to deal with the moral distress in new waves of the disease and using the experiences of the experienced nurses in this field are essential due to observing the moderate level of moral distress among nurses working in covid-19 wards.