Moral Distress (MD) and burnout in mental health nurses: a multicenter survey

Moral Distress (MD) is a common experience among nurses and if it is not recognised and treated, it may lead to serious consequences on nurses' health and quality of care. MD has been studied in several healthcare contexts. However, there are only few studies on MD in psychiatry and in Italy there are no data in this field.  Objective: To assess the presence of MD among mental health nurses in Italy and verify whether there is a relationship between MD and burnout.

We conducted a multicentre survey among nurses of Mental Health services of four hospitals in Milan. The MD Scale for Psychiatric NursesItalianrevised (MDS-PItarev) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) were used for data collection. Factor analysis and calculation of content validity index (CVI) and Cronbach's alpha were performed on the Italian version of the MDS-PIta. Three items of the old version of the scale were removed, because judged not relevant in the Italian context. The revised scale maintained excellent CVI (0.89) and Cronbach's alpha (0.93).

Of 285 questionnaires distributed, 228 (80%) were returned. The median of MD was 2 (scale range 0-6); MD is correlated with two burnout dimensions: emotional exhaustion (rho(ρ)=0.28, p<0,001) and depersonalization (ρ=0.20, p<0,001).

This is the first study about MD among psychiatric nurses in Italy. We found a medium-low level of MD among nurses who participated in the survey. We also found a modest but significant correlation between MD and two dimensions of MBI. Further studies are needed to confirm these results.