Moral Distress and Resilience Amongst Pediatric Emergency Department Nurses

Date

2019-01-28

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to quantify moral distress and resiliency amongst pediatric nurses (RNs) working in the emergency department (ED) and explore the relationship between resilience and moral distress in pediatric ED nurses. Both moral distress and resilience have been associated with nursing burnout for nurses who work in high stress environments, including EDs and pediatrics. Resiliency may help mitigate the harmful impact of working in high stress work environments. An online cross-sectional exploratory correlational methodology was utilized to quantify moral distress and resiliency. In this sample, there was not a significant relationship between moral distress and resiliency amongst pediatric ED RNs. While there was a significant correlation (p<0.05) between years of nursing experience and resiliency score, this relationship did not have a significant impact on the moral distress score, despite 21% of pediatric ED RNs in the sample currently considering leaving their position. While moral distress and resiliency has been shown to have an inverse linear relationship, with limited resources available to support nursing practice, it is important that multiple approaches are utilized in the effort to reduce moral distress and burnout amongst RNs.

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Keywords

moral distress, resiliency, pediatric, emergency department

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