Moral Distress Encounter Essay

Moral Distress Encounter
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Moral Distress Encounter
Moral distress in nursing is the emotional instability that arises from situations where nurses feel that the ethically appropriate action to take conflicts with what they are tasked to do. Moral distress occurs in situations where nurses feel obliged to agree with ethical choices or act against a moral judgment, which brings about painful unsettled feelings, and worry that continues long after an event (Henrich et al., 2016). An example of a situation that can cause moral distress is palliative care decision making especially in the intensive care unit (ICU). Caregivers working in the intensive care unit may experience moral distress resulting from feelings of ineffectiveness when providing palliative care, unsuitable treatment, life or death protraction, inability to satisfy patients' last requests, and lying to or withholding medical prognosis from patients and their relatives (Wolf, 2016).
AACN "4's" advise nurses to ask, affirm, assess, and act as steps to deal with moral distress. The first step advises nurses to ask themselves whether whatever experience they are having is moral distress. It will help them understan...