Clinical decision making and moral distress among intensive care units nurses in Iran

Abstract Background Intensive care units are often presented as environments where ethical issues are common and decisions can determine the life or death of patients, and these units have unique challenges due to critical health care. In these units, the relationship between the medical team and th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Arefeh Arash, GHolamreza Mahmoodi-shan, Fatemeh Mehravar, Zahra Sabzi, Hamideh Mancheri
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2024-11-01
Series:BMC Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-02197-4
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1846147326881562624
author Arefeh Arash
GHolamreza Mahmoodi-shan
Fatemeh Mehravar
Zahra Sabzi
Hamideh Mancheri
author_facet Arefeh Arash
GHolamreza Mahmoodi-shan
Fatemeh Mehravar
Zahra Sabzi
Hamideh Mancheri
author_sort Arefeh Arash
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Background Intensive care units are often presented as environments where ethical issues are common and decisions can determine the life or death of patients, and these units have unique challenges due to critical health care. In these units, the relationship between the medical team and the patient’s relatives, their refusal of treatment, informed consent causes the nurses to have conflict in their decision making, therefore, this study aims to determine the level of clinical decision-making and moral distress and the relationship between them in intensive care units nurses. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted with a descriptive-analytical approach in 2023 in Gorgan city. The number of 198 nurses in the intensive care units of Gonbad Kavos hospitals in the north of Iran were investigated and evaluated using the Corley Moral Distress questionnaire (2002), and Laurie’s Clinical Decision questionnaire (2001) in 2023. Independent T-test and anova analysis of variance were used for bivariate analysis. The significance level in this study was considered 0.05. Results The results of the study showed that the mean and standard deviation of clinical decision making was 60.98 ± 10.25 (analytical-systematic level) and moral distress was 92.2 ± 23.61 (moderate level). There was a statistically significant relationship between clinical decision-making and nurses’ moral distress (P < 0.001 and r = 0.370). The moral distress score had a statistically significant relationship with marriage, employment status, education level, age, work experience and duration of employment in the special department. Also, the clinical decision score had a statistically significant relationship with employment status, education level, age and work experience. Conclusion According to these results, it seems that more attention should be paid to the moral distress of nurses in intensive care units, and it is necessary to improve their decision-making towards intuitive interpretation, which is done by designing and compiling training programs and workshops for nurses can be done, so that we can provide optimal nursing services to the patients of this department.
format Article
id doaj-art-df78aae3b8334ce08c5c3e2e2774e61d
institution Kabale University
issn 2050-7283
language English
publishDate 2024-11-01
publisher BMC
record_format Article
series BMC Psychology
spelling doaj-art-df78aae3b8334ce08c5c3e2e2774e61d2024-12-01T12:50:59ZengBMCBMC Psychology2050-72832024-11-011211810.1186/s40359-024-02197-4Clinical decision making and moral distress among intensive care units nurses in IranArefeh Arash0GHolamreza Mahmoodi-shan1Fatemeh Mehravar2Zahra Sabzi3Hamideh Mancheri4School of Nursing and Midwifery, Golestan University of Medical SciencesNursing Research Center, Golestan University of Medical SciencesIschemic Disorders Research Center, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Health, Golestan University of Medical SciencesNursing Research Center, Golestan University of Medical SciencesNursing Research Center, Golestan University of Medical SciencesAbstract Background Intensive care units are often presented as environments where ethical issues are common and decisions can determine the life or death of patients, and these units have unique challenges due to critical health care. In these units, the relationship between the medical team and the patient’s relatives, their refusal of treatment, informed consent causes the nurses to have conflict in their decision making, therefore, this study aims to determine the level of clinical decision-making and moral distress and the relationship between them in intensive care units nurses. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted with a descriptive-analytical approach in 2023 in Gorgan city. The number of 198 nurses in the intensive care units of Gonbad Kavos hospitals in the north of Iran were investigated and evaluated using the Corley Moral Distress questionnaire (2002), and Laurie’s Clinical Decision questionnaire (2001) in 2023. Independent T-test and anova analysis of variance were used for bivariate analysis. The significance level in this study was considered 0.05. Results The results of the study showed that the mean and standard deviation of clinical decision making was 60.98 ± 10.25 (analytical-systematic level) and moral distress was 92.2 ± 23.61 (moderate level). There was a statistically significant relationship between clinical decision-making and nurses’ moral distress (P < 0.001 and r = 0.370). The moral distress score had a statistically significant relationship with marriage, employment status, education level, age, work experience and duration of employment in the special department. Also, the clinical decision score had a statistically significant relationship with employment status, education level, age and work experience. Conclusion According to these results, it seems that more attention should be paid to the moral distress of nurses in intensive care units, and it is necessary to improve their decision-making towards intuitive interpretation, which is done by designing and compiling training programs and workshops for nurses can be done, so that we can provide optimal nursing services to the patients of this department.https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-02197-4NursingMoral distressClinical decision-makingIntensive care units
spellingShingle Arefeh Arash
GHolamreza Mahmoodi-shan
Fatemeh Mehravar
Zahra Sabzi
Hamideh Mancheri
Clinical decision making and moral distress among intensive care units nurses in Iran
BMC Psychology
Nursing
Moral distress
Clinical decision-making
Intensive care units
title Clinical decision making and moral distress among intensive care units nurses in Iran
title_full Clinical decision making and moral distress among intensive care units nurses in Iran
title_fullStr Clinical decision making and moral distress among intensive care units nurses in Iran
title_full_unstemmed Clinical decision making and moral distress among intensive care units nurses in Iran
title_short Clinical decision making and moral distress among intensive care units nurses in Iran
title_sort clinical decision making and moral distress among intensive care units nurses in iran
topic Nursing
Moral distress
Clinical decision-making
Intensive care units
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-02197-4
work_keys_str_mv AT arefeharash clinicaldecisionmakingandmoraldistressamongintensivecareunitsnursesiniran
AT gholamrezamahmoodishan clinicaldecisionmakingandmoraldistressamongintensivecareunitsnursesiniran
AT fatemehmehravar clinicaldecisionmakingandmoraldistressamongintensivecareunitsnursesiniran
AT zahrasabzi clinicaldecisionmakingandmoraldistressamongintensivecareunitsnursesiniran
AT hamidehmancheri clinicaldecisionmakingandmoraldistressamongintensivecareunitsnursesiniran