The term moral distress, one of the problems encountered most frequently by nurses, describes the situations that arise from some constraints when a nurse feels that the correct action to take is different from what he or she is tasked with doing. This study aims at determining the situations that lead to moral distress and factors that affect them. This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted through face-to-face interviews at two public hospitals and a university hospital e in the Aydın between January and March 2018. The research data were collected by using Personal Information Form and Moral Distress Scale for Nurses. Four hundred forty eight nurses working in the hospitals participated in this study. The total mean score obtained from the Moral Distress Scale was 36.74+14.32, and the highest mean score obtained from the sub-scales was taken from the time subdimension and the lowest score average from the possibilities sub-dimension. When the Moral Distress Scale mean scores are analyzed according to the demographic characteristics of the nurses; a statistical significance was found in the sub-dimensions in terms of age and hospital (p<0.05). In this study, the mean of moral distress of the nurses was found to be moderate. The age of the nurses and the institution where they work have a significant impact on their moral distress. It was concluded that nurses experienced the highest level of distress in the moral distress sub-dimensions in the time sub-dimension.
Keywords: Ethic; moral distress; nursing; perception; experience
Hemşirelerin günümüzde sık karşılaştığı sorunların başında gelen ahlaki sıkıntı kavramı, birtakım engellenmeler neticesinde doğru eylemlerin bilinmesine karşın yerine getirilemediği durumları ifade etmektedir. Bu çalışma, hemşirelerin ahlaki sıkıntı yaşama durumlarını ve etkileyen etmenleri belirlemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Kesitsel tanımlayıcı nitelikteki bu araştırma, Ocak-Mart 2018 tarihleri arasında yüz yüze görüşme yöntemi kullanılarak, Aydın ilinde bulunan iki devlet hastanesi ve bir üniversite hastanesinde yürütülmüştür. Araştırma verileri; Kişisel Bilgi Formu ve Hemşirelikte Ahlaki Sıkıntı Ölçeği kullanılarak toplanmıştır. Bu çalışmaya, hastanede çalışan 448 hemşire katılmıştır. Ahlaki Sıkıntı Ölçeğinden elde edilen toplam puan ortalaması 36,74+14,32 olup, alt ölçeklere bakıldığında alınan en yüksek puan ortalaması zaman alt boyutundan, en düşük puan ortalaması ise olanaklar alt boyutundan alınmıştır. Hemşirelerin demografik özelliklerine göre Ahlaki Sıkıntı Ölçeği puan ortalamaları incelendiğinde, yaş ve çalışılan hastane açısından alt boyutlarda istatistiksel anlamlılık saptanmıştır (p<0,05). Bu çalışmada, hemşirelerin ahlaki sıkıntı puan ortalaması orta düzeyde bulunmuştur. Hemşirelerin yaşları ve çalıştıkları kurum, ahlaki sıkıntı yaşama durumlarını önemli derecede etkilemektedir. Hemşirelerin ahlaki sıkıntı alt boyutlarında, zaman alt boyutunda en yüksek düzeyde sıkıntı yaşadıkları sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Etik; ahlaki sıkıntı; etik; hemşirelik; algı; deneyim
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