Date
6-19-2024
Department
School of Nursing
Degree
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Chair
Cynthia (Cindy) Goodrich
Keywords
Moral distress, post-code pause, intensive care unit and ICU, clinician burnout
Disciplines
Nursing
Recommended Citation
Furman, Bethany Corinne, "The Pause: Impacting Moral Distress in Our Caregivers, an Integrative Review" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 5724.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5724
Abstract
Moral distress is endemic to healthcare in the emerging post-covid era. Moral distress is defined as the knowledge of the correct or ethical action but the repeated inability to act in that manner. First studied in nursing, it has been found in nearly every facet of healthcare and is strongly associated with clinician burnout, intent to leave position, and behaviors that can in turn compromise patient safety. Intensive care unit (ICU) nurses experience moral distress at higher rates than other subspecialties. Prevention of and recovery from moral distress is complex, but various forms of debriefing have long been suggested to decrease the perception of moral distress after critical situations. This project evaluated the literature related to both moral distress and a post-code pause to determine if this intervention decreases the perception of moral distress in the ICU setting. Findings include that moral distress is endemic within the ICU setting, that debriefing is one of the few validated tools to prevent or remedy moral distress, and that the post-code pause may in fact be an effective tool to combat this issue, although further research is needed.
