Question

Describe a clinical situation in which a registered nurse may encounter moral distress. explain the situation, and the possible mitigation strategies.

Answer 1

Ans:- clinical situations in which a registered nurse may encounter moral distress are as follows :-

1. Not enough resources,

2. Not enough staff,

3. Working too many hours,

4. An uncontrolled volume of patients,

These are the situations in which nurses are distressed and unable to provide care at the standard they believe patients deserve.

Explanation of these situations are as follows :-

1.Not enough resources :- It means if there is not enough resources to provide the deserved care to the patient, then in this situation nurse will panic and she will encounter moral distress. For example :- she wants to check the blood pressure of a patient and she is not finding the BP apparatus to the check the blood pressure then she will panic and if in this situation patient or his /her family members will complain about it then in this situation she will encountered moral distress.

2.Not enough staff :- if staff will be not according to the patient ratio then this situation also will create the panic condition due to the work load and she will encountered moral distress.

3. Working too many hours :- If a nurse will work more than her capacity and more than assigned hours to her then she will not be able to fulfill the demand of patient care and this situation will become responsible for encountered moral distress.

4. An uncontrolled volume of patients :- If there will be more patient load like in emergency crisis then in this situation nurse will not able to provide derserved care to the patients and this situation will cause encountered moral distress.

Possible mitigation strategies for these situations are as follows :-

1. Support the nursing code of ethics.

2.Bring different disciplines together,

3. Create an environment where nurse can speak up,

4. Offer ongoing education,

5. Provide ethics experts,

6. Add unit based ethics mentors,

7. Hold a family conference,

8.offer employee counseling services,

9. Provide extra staff,

10. We ensure that the resources are provided at appropriate time,

11. We will make sure that a nurse work only in assigned hours not more than that.