Skip to main content
Log in

Moral Distress in Healthcare Practice: The Situation of Nurses

  • Published:
HEC Forum Aims and scope Submit manuscript

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Bishop AH, and Scudder JR. Nursing as a practice rather than an art or a science. Nursing Outlook, 1997; 45(2): 82–85.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Gastmans C, Dierckx de Casterle B,and Schotsmans P.Nursing considered a moral practice:A philosophical-ethical interpretation of nursing.Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, 1998; 8(1): 43–69.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Bergum V.Relational ethics for nursing. In: J. Storch, P. Rodney, R. Starzomski;eds. Toward a moral horizon: Nursing ethics in leadership and practice; Toronto: Pearson Education Canada; 2004: 485–503.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Austin W, Bergum V, Hamburger L, Kagan L, and Rankel M. Mental health practitioners’ experience of moral distress” is situated at the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre, University of Alberta, Canada, and funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

  5. Jameton A. Nursing practice: The ethical issues Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall; 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Nathaniel A. Moral distress among nurses. The American Nurses Association Ethics and Human Rights Issues Updates, 2002; 1(3). [Online] Available: www.nursingworld.org/ethics/update/vol1no3a.htm.

  7. Jameton A. Dilemmas of moral distress: Moral responsibility and nursing practice. Clinical Issues in Perinatal and Womens’ Health Nursing, 1993; 4: 542–551.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Wilkinson JM. Moral distress in nursing practice: Experience and effects. Nursing Forum, 1987;23(1): 16–29.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Erlen JA. Moral distress: A pervasive problem. Orthopaedic Nursing, 2001; 20(2): 76–80.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Millette BE. Using Gilligan’s framework to analyze nurses’ stories of moral choices. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 1994; 16(6): 660–674.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Hamric AB. Moral distress in everyday ethics. Nursing Outlook, 2000; 48: 199–201.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Fenton M. Moral distress in clinical practice: Implications for the nurse administrator. Canadian Journal of Nursing Administration, 1988; 1(3): 8–11.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Sundin-Huard D, and Fahy K.Moral distress, advocacy and burnout: Theorising the relationships. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 1999; 5: 8–13.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Tiedje LB. Moral distress in perinatal nursing. Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing, 2000; 14(2): 36–43

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Rodney P, and Varcoe C. Towards ethical inquiry in the economic evaluations of nursing practice. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 2001; 33(1): 35–37.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Fry ST, Harvey RM, Hurley AC, and Foley BJ. Development of a model of moral distress in military nursing. Nursing Ethics, 2002; 9(4): 373–387.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Corley MC, Elswick RK, Gorman M, and Clor T. Development and evaluation of a moral distress scale. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 2001; 33(2): 250–256.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Barr P. The unknown fear — moral distress. Nebraska Nurse, 1992; Feb.: 12–13.

  19. Rodney P, and Starzomski R. Constraints on the moral agency of nurses. Canadian Nurse, 1993; 89(9): 23–26.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Pike AW. Moral outrage and moral discourse in nurse-physician collaboration. Journal of Professional Nursing, 1991; 7(6): 351–363.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Sarvimaki A. Science and tradition in the nursing discipline. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 1994; 8: 137–142.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Henderson ML. The nurse as moral agent. Nursing RSA Verpleging, 1990; 5(3): 10–15.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Astrom G, Furaker C, and Norberg A. Nurses’ skills in managing ethically difficult care situations: Interpretations of nurses’ narratives. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 1995; 21: 1073–1080.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Raines ML. Ethical decision making in nurses: relationships among moral reasoning,coping style,and ethics stress. JONA’s Healthcare law, Ethics and regulation, 2000;2(1): 29–41.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Coles R. The Call of Stories. Teaching and the Moral Imagination Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company; 1989.

  26. Yarling RR, and McElmurry BJ. The moral foundation of nursing. Advances in Nursing Science 1986; 8(2): 69.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Benner P. The role of experience, narrative, community in skilled ethical comportment. Advances in Nursing Science 1991; 14: 1–21.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Fairbairn G, and Mead D. Working with the stories nurses tell. Nursing Standard 1993; 7(31): 37–40.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Brody H. Stories of Sickness, New Haven: Cambridge University Press; 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Gadow S. Relational narrative: The postmodern turn in nursing ethics. Scholarly Inquiry for Nursing Practice: An International Journal, 1999; 13(1): 57–70.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Taylor C. Positioning subjects and objects: Agency,narration, relationality. Hypatia, 1993; 8(1): 55–80.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Walker MU. Keeping moral spaces open. Hastings Center Report, 1993; 23(2): 33–38.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Austin W, Bergum V, and Goldberg L. Unable to answer the call of our patients: Mental Health nurses’ experience of moral distress. Nursing Inquiry, 2003; 10(3): 177–183.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Doka K, Rushton CH, and Thorstenson TA. Healthcare ethics forum ‘94: Caregiver distress: “If it is so ethical, why does it feel so bad?” AACN Clinical Issues in Critical Care Nursing, 1994; 5(3): 346–352.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Bergum V, and Dossetor J. Relational ethics. The full meaning of respect Hagerstown University Publishing Group; 2005 (in press).

  36. Austin W, Bergum V, and Dossetor J. Relational ethics. In: Tshudin V; ed. Ethics in nursing: Issues in advance practice. Woburn: Butterworth-Heinemann; 2002: 45–52.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Austin, W., Lemermeyer, G., Goldberg, L. et al. Moral Distress in Healthcare Practice: The Situation of Nurses. HEC Forum 17, 33–48 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-005-4949-1

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-005-4949-1

Keywords

Navigation