When Ethics Hurts: The Causes and Impact of Moral Distress on Emergency Department Nurses: A Scoping Review
C Walters, M Murray, C Young · 2026
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Description
C. Walters and two colleagues mapped a decade of research on moral distress among emergency department nurses, the anguish of knowing the right action while being blocked from taking it. Their 2026 scoping review searched four databases for studies from 2015 to 2025 and organised the findings thematically.
Four themes organised the literature: what contributes to the distress, the situations that trigger it, its impact, and the support strategies tried. Organisational constraints and impersonal, rushed care recurred as causes, with effects on well-being, job satisfaction, and care quality. Most studies merely described the problem; few tested interventions, and none followed nurses over time. The authors call for intervention trials and longitudinal work to guide leaders trying to stem emergency nurse attrition.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | C Walters, M Murray, C Young |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 69627 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |