We have located links that may give you full text access.
'Powerlessness' or 'doing the right thing' - Moral distress among nursing home staff caring for residents at the end of life: An interpretive descriptive study.
Palliative Medicine 2017 October
BACKGROUND: Caring for dying people can contribute to moral distress experienced by healthcare professionals. Moral distress can occur when this caring is restricted by organisational processes, resources or the provision of futile care. These factors apply to end of life care in nursing homes but research is lacking.
AIM: To describe how nursing home staff experience moral distress when caring for residents during and at the end of life.
METHODS: An interpretive descriptive design, using the critical incident technique in semi-structured interviews to collect data from nursing home staff. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach.
SETTING: Four nursing homes in one large metropolitan area.
PARTICIPANTS: A total of 16 staff: 2 nurse managers, 4 nurses and 10 care assistants.
FINDINGS: Participants described holding 'good dying' values which influenced their practice. The four practice-orientated themes of advocating, caring, communicating and relating with residents were found to influence interactions with residents, relatives, general practitioners, and colleagues. These led staff to be able to 'do the right thing' or to experience 'powerlessness', which could in turn lead to staff perceiving a 'bad death' for residents.
CONCLUSION: When there are incongruent values concerning care between staff and others involved in the care of residents, staff feel powerless to 'do the right thing' and unable to influence care decisions in order to avoid a 'bad death'. This powerlessness is the nature of their moral distress.
AIM: To describe how nursing home staff experience moral distress when caring for residents during and at the end of life.
METHODS: An interpretive descriptive design, using the critical incident technique in semi-structured interviews to collect data from nursing home staff. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach.
SETTING: Four nursing homes in one large metropolitan area.
PARTICIPANTS: A total of 16 staff: 2 nurse managers, 4 nurses and 10 care assistants.
FINDINGS: Participants described holding 'good dying' values which influenced their practice. The four practice-orientated themes of advocating, caring, communicating and relating with residents were found to influence interactions with residents, relatives, general practitioners, and colleagues. These led staff to be able to 'do the right thing' or to experience 'powerlessness', which could in turn lead to staff perceiving a 'bad death' for residents.
CONCLUSION: When there are incongruent values concerning care between staff and others involved in the care of residents, staff feel powerless to 'do the right thing' and unable to influence care decisions in order to avoid a 'bad death'. This powerlessness is the nature of their moral distress.
Full text links
Trending Papers
A Personalized Approach to the Management of Congestion in Acute Heart Failure.Heart International 2023
Potential Mechanisms of the Protective Effects of the Cardiometabolic Drugs Type-2 Sodium-Glucose Transporter Inhibitors and Glucagon-like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists in Heart Failure.International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2024 Februrary 21
The Effect of Albumin Administration in Critically Ill Patients: A Retrospective Single-Center Analysis.Critical Care Medicine 2024 Februrary 8
Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university
For the best experience, use the Read mobile app
All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.
By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.
Your Privacy Choices
You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now
Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university
For the best experience, use the Read mobile app