Nurses' level of moral distress and perception of futile care in the critical care environment

Almost half of all healthcare providers in 2003 suffered a high degree of work stress, with nurses, physicians, and laboratory technicians reporting the highest amounts. Chinn and Kramer's (2008) theoretical framework was used to investigate the occurrence of moral distress in a medical-surgical intensive care unit (MS-ICU). The study was a non-experimental, descriptive study that used the Moral Distress Scale (MDS) to measure moral distress. Statistical analyses revealed a statistically significant relationship between the intensity of moral distress and years in nursing practice for the categories of futile care and institutional factors. Overall, a moderate level of intensity of moral distress and a relatively low frequency of encounters was found.