Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if registered nurses (RNs) who attended a workplace-based educational program would have decreased intensity, frequency, and total moral distress, compared to nurses who did not attend the program. This educational program was operationalized using a framework published by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses' program entitled The 4A's to Rise Above Moral Distress (2005). Moral distress is an insidious problem affecting many registered nurses, directly and or indirectly, with potentially harmful consequences. A review of the literature revealed that the consequences of moral distress produce a significant negative effect on the physical, behavioral, spiritual, and psychological well-being of morally distressed nurses, their peers, patient care, the work environment, and the overall efficiency of healthcare institutions. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design was selected for this study. Using The 4A's to Rise Above Moral Distress (2005) as the intervention, Bandura's social cognitive theory and Corley's theory of nurse moral distress served as the theoretical framework for this study. The 38 item, 7-point Likert scale, Moral Distress Scale was used to measure the subscales of intensity and frequency, as well as total moral distress.

Description

This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 3533656; ProQuest document ID: 1221319518. The author still retains copyright.

Author Details

Nancy Miller Powell, PhD, MSN, CNM, RNC-OB, NPD-BC

Sigma Membership

Theta Sigma

Type

Dissertation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Quasi-Experimental Study, Other

Research Approach

Quantitative Research

Keywords:

Moral Distress, Nurse Education, Improving Outcomes

Advisor

Mary Baumberger-Henry

Degree

PhD

Degree Grantor

Widener University

Degree Year

2012

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2020-04-08

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