Moral Distress

1. Describe a distressing clinical experience you have had as a nurse when you either were involved in or witnessed care or behaviors that you would describe as unethical. Ensuring confidentiality in your description of the event, place, and persons, include in your description: a. the setting in which the conflict occurred (e.g., ICU, hospital inpatient unit, LTC, OR) b. disease or patient group (e.g., geriatric, cancer, NICU, dementia) or healthcare team (e.g., physician-nurse, nurse-nurse) c. the type of conflict (e.g., withdrawal of life support, nutrition, hydration; HIPAA violation, pain management) d. all those involved in the conflict (e.g., nurse, physician, patient, family member) e. cultural factors identified as influencing the clinical experience (e.g., ethnicity, poverty) 2. How do you think this experience affected you as a nurse? a. what emotions do you recall having in the aftermath of the situation (e.g., advocacy, anger, career change, guilt, betrayal, and so on)? b. how do you feel about it now? 3. How do you think these experiences affect the profession of nursing? 4. When confronted with a similar situation what do you imagine doing differently?      

Sample Solution