Exploring moral distress in the long-term care setting

Moral distress has the potential to affect every practice setting in nursing; however little research has been conducted that examines the presence and impact of moral distress for nurses working in long-term care. This article reports the results of a pilot study that examined the experience and presence of moral distress of registered nurses in a long-term care setting. A convenience pilot sample of 6 nurses participated in audio-taped open-ended interviews. Interview questions were formulated using Corley's theory of moral distress as the theoretical framework. Findings indicated that nurses' experiences of moral distress were precipitated most often by disagreements with family regarding treatment decisions for residents that impacted quality of life and lack of resources to meet residents' assessed needs. Moral distress had both a positive and negative impact on nurses with nurses reporting that the presence of moral distress had little impact on the quality of care received by residents.