Moral distress is defined as an inability to act according to one’s ethical principles by the moral agent due to various influencing external constraints such as time pressures, organizational, legal, and/or authoritative barriers (as cited by Ulrich & Hamric, 2008). According to de Veer, Francke, Struijs, and Willems (2013), nurses often experience moral distress due to the inadequate staffing, job pressure, higher societal demands, and conflicts between institutional rules and one’s moral values. Moral distress can lead to disturbing consequences, such as burnout, turnover, fatigue, frustration, physical illness, anger, powerlessness, and a host of other worrisome and painful outcomes. The moral distress I had experienced is when my patient walk against the medical advice (AMA).
I took care of a middle-aged Native American woman, who was admitted to the adult surgical floor after an angiogram. She had an angiogram to …show more content…
In addition, the topic of the AMA should be included in training during orientation. In this way, the healthcare professionals would be aware about the topic and have a basic idea to deal with the AMA. According to Ulrich and Hamric (2008), the other preventive measures that could help to prevent and manage moral distress are-
“Fostering open communication among health team members with full access to institutional ethics committees, providing support for all health care providers to speak up about their ethical concerns, upholding a zero-tolerance policy for reprisals when providers speak out, and developing and continually updating proactive plans for complex patients” (pg. 6).
Similarly, Alfandre (2009) mentioned about some of the strategies to prevent AMA discharges, which included addressing substance abuse, recognizing psychological factors, and motivational
I took care of a middle-aged Native American woman, who was admitted to the adult surgical floor after an angiogram. She had an angiogram to …show more content…
In addition, the topic of the AMA should be included in training during orientation. In this way, the healthcare professionals would be aware about the topic and have a basic idea to deal with the AMA. According to Ulrich and Hamric (2008), the other preventive measures that could help to prevent and manage moral distress are-
“Fostering open communication among health team members with full access to institutional ethics committees, providing support for all health care providers to speak up about their ethical concerns, upholding a zero-tolerance policy for reprisals when providers speak out, and developing and continually updating proactive plans for complex patients” (pg. 6).
Similarly, Alfandre (2009) mentioned about some of the strategies to prevent AMA discharges, which included addressing substance abuse, recognizing psychological factors, and motivational