Nursing ethics
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These are strange and unprecedented times in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most frontline healthcare professionals have never witnessed anything like this before. As a result, staff may experience numerous and continuous traumatic events, which in many instances, will negatively affect their psychological well-being. ⋯ Nurses affected by this trauma require education, coping tools, and therapy to help avoid or alleviate the adverse effects on their well-being. Institutions must provide these resources to tend to the well-being of their healthcare staff, during and beyond the pandemic. This article aims to investigate moral distress-considering it as a moral injury-and offer tools and recommendations to support healthcare nurses as they respond to this crisis and its aftermath.
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In Hospital Emergency Department and Emergency Medical Services professionals experience situations in which they face difficulties or barriers to know patient's advance directives and implement them. ⋯ The different strategies described in this study can contribute to the development of health policies and action protocols to help reduce both the barriers that hinder the correct management and implementation of advance directives and the ethical conflicts generated.
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When the contagious COVID-19 spread worldwide, the frontline staff faced unprecedented excessive work pressure and expectations of all of the society. ⋯ The healthcare workers caring for patients with COVID-19 had low stress level, although they still had the fear of being infected or uncomfortable feeling caused by personal protective equipment. A low stress level among healthcare workers indicated their professional devotion and altruism during COVID-19 epidemic. Medical institutions and the government should continue to strengthen infection prevention measures and provide more comprehensive care involving families of frontline healthcare workers, especially nurses and married staff. It will be a lesson to other countries that awaking healthcare workers' inside motivation and providing necessary support from government and society were significant.
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Moral distress was first described by Jameton in 1984, and has been defined as distress experienced by an individual when they are unable to carry out what they believe to be the right course of action because of real or perceived constraints on that action. This complex phenomenon has been studied extensively among healthcare providers, and intensive care professionals in particular report high levels of moral distress. This distress has been associated with provider burnout and associated consequences such as job attrition, with potential impacts on patient and family care. There is a paucity of literature exploring how middle and late career healthcare providers experience and cope with moral distress. ⋯ This exploratory work lays the groundwork for interventions that facilitate personal growth and meaning in the midst of moral crises in critical care practice.
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The international health workforce crisis had led to an increasing shortage of nurses, which has substantial implications for the quality of patient care. This shortage potentially results in nurse-perceived time pressure, which can be particularly challenging for nurses who provide care for older persons. ⋯ Working under time pressure in the care of older persons leads to various important challenges for nursing ethics. The findings show that providing care that promotes the human dignity of older persons in busy working environments in which care is rationed is an important ethical challenge. As such, our study offers a baseline for further research and discussion on how to support nurses working under time pressure.