TY - JOUR
T1 - Moral Distress Reexamined
T2 - A Feminist Interpretation of Nurses' Identities, Relationships, and Responsibilites
AU - Peter, Elizabeth
AU - Liaschenko, Joan
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2013 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2013/10
Y1 - 2013/10
N2 - Moral distress has been written about extensively in nursing and other fields. Often, however, it has not been used with much theoretical depth. This paper focuses on theorizing moral distress using feminist ethics, particularly the work of Margaret Urban Walker and Hilde Lindemann. Incorporating empirical findings, we argue that moral distress is the response to constraints experienced by nurses to their moral identities, responsibilities, and relationships. We recommend that health professionals get assistance in accounting for and communicating their values and responsibilities in situations of moral distress. We also discuss the importance of nurses creating "counterstories" of their work as knowledgeable and trustworthy professionals to repair their damaged moral identities, and, finally, we recommend that efforts toward shifting the goal of health care away from the prolongation of life at all costs to the relief of suffering to diminish the moral distress that is a common response to aggressive care at end-of-life.
AB - Moral distress has been written about extensively in nursing and other fields. Often, however, it has not been used with much theoretical depth. This paper focuses on theorizing moral distress using feminist ethics, particularly the work of Margaret Urban Walker and Hilde Lindemann. Incorporating empirical findings, we argue that moral distress is the response to constraints experienced by nurses to their moral identities, responsibilities, and relationships. We recommend that health professionals get assistance in accounting for and communicating their values and responsibilities in situations of moral distress. We also discuss the importance of nurses creating "counterstories" of their work as knowledgeable and trustworthy professionals to repair their damaged moral identities, and, finally, we recommend that efforts toward shifting the goal of health care away from the prolongation of life at all costs to the relief of suffering to diminish the moral distress that is a common response to aggressive care at end-of-life.
KW - End-of-life
KW - Feminist ethics
KW - Moral distress
KW - Nursing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84886087647&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1007/s11673-013-9456-5
DO - 10.1007/s11673-013-9456-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 23754182
AN - SCOPUS:84886087647
SN - 1176-7529
VL - 10
SP - 337
EP - 345
JO - Journal of bioethical inquiry
JF - Journal of bioethical inquiry
IS - 3
ER -