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Ethical Conflict and Its Psychological Correlates among Hospital Nurses in the Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study within Swiss COVID-19 and Non-COVID-19 Wards.

ABSTRACT: During the Covid-19 pandemic, nurses experienced increased pressure. Consequently, ethical concerns and psychological distress emerged. This study aimed to assess nurses' ethical conflict, resilience and psychological impact, and compare these variables between nurses who worked in Covid-19 wards and nurses who did not. Design-Multicentre online survey. Setting-Multi-site public hospital; all nursing staff were invited to participate. The survey included validated tools and a novel instrument to assess ethical conflict. Spearman's rho coefficient was used to assess correlations between ethical conflict and psychological distress, logistic regressions to evaluate relationships between nurses' characteristics and outcome variables, and the Mann-Whitney/t-test to compare groups. 548 questionnaires out of 2039 were returned (275 = Covid-19; 273 = non-Covid-19). We found a low-moderate level of ethical conflict (median = 111.5 [76-152]), which emerged mostly for seeing patients dying alone. A moderate and significant positive correlation emerged between ethical conflict and psychological distress rs (546) = 0.453, p < 0.001. Nurses working in Covid-19-ICUs (OR = 7.18; 95%CI = 3.96-13.01; p < 0.001) and Covid-19 wards (OR = 5.85; 95%CI = 3.56-9.6; p < 0.001) showed higher ethical conflict. Resilience was a protective factor for ethical conflict. Ethical conflict was significantly linked to psychological distress, while a higher level of resilience was found to be a protective factor. These results can be informative for nursing management in future similar crises.

SUBMITTER: Villa M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8618535 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Ethical Conflict and Its Psychological Correlates among Hospital Nurses in the Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study within Swiss COVID-19 and Non-COVID-19 Wards.

Villa Michele M Balice-Bourgois Colette C Tolotti Angela A Falcó-Pegueroles Anna A Barello Serena S Luca Elena Corina EC Clivio Luca L Biegger Annette A Valcarenghi Dario D Bonetti Loris L

International journal of environmental research and public health 20211116 22

<h4>Background</h4>During the Covid-19 pandemic, nurses experienced increased pressure. Consequently, ethical concerns and psychological distress emerged. This study aimed to assess nurses' ethical conflict, resilience and psychological impact, and compare these variables between nurses who worked in Covid-19 wards and nurses who did not.<h4>Methods</h4>Design-Multicentre online survey. Setting-Multi-site public hospital; all nursing staff were invited to participate. The survey included validat ...[more]

PMID: 34831768

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Project description:BackgroundEthical conflict is a problem with negative consequences, which can compromise the quality and ethical standards of the nursing profession and it is a source of stress for health care practitioners', especially for nurses.ObjectivesThe main aim of this study was to analyze Spanish critical care nurses' level of exposure to ethical conflict and its association with sociodemographic, occupational, and COVID-19-related variables. Research Design, Participants, and Research context: This was a quantitative cross-sectional descriptive study conducted among 117 nurses working in critical care units. Data collection tools were sociodemographic, occupational, and COVID-19-related questionnaires and previously validated Spanish version of Ethical Conflict in Nursing Questionnaire-Critical Care Version.Ethical considerationsWe obtained permission from the Ethics Committee and participants' informed consent.FindingsData indicates a moderate level of exposure to ethical conflicts. The most frequent ethical conflicts were related to situations about "treatment and clinical procedures." The most intensity of ethical conflicts was related to situations about "treatment and clinical procedures" and "dynamics of the service and working environment." No statistical significance was identified between the socio-demographic variables and level of exposure to ethical conflicts. However, for critical care nurses working in ICU, nurses with perceived worked stress had a higher level of exposure to ethical conflicts. Likewise, critical care nurses whose family/friends were infected with COVID-19 had a higher level of exposure.ConclusionsCritical care nurses experience a moderate level of exposure to ethical conflicts which is consistent with the results of previous studies. A deeper understanding of ethical conflicts in conflictive situations allows recognition of the situations that occur in everyday clinical practice, identification of the ethical conflicts, and facilitation of the nurses working in the challenging clinical situation.

Project description:BackgroundThe increasing costs of nurses' occupational-stress, conflicts, and violence within healthcare services have raised international interest. Yet, research/interventions should consider that perceived stress and conflicts- but also potential resources- within the wards can crossover the healthcare settings, impacting nurses' private lives and viceversa, potentially creating vicious circles exacerbating stress, conflicts/violence or, conversely, virtuous circles of psychological/relational wellbeing. Based on the Demands-Resources-and-Individual-Effects (DRIVE) Nurses Model, and responding to the need to go in-depth into this complex dynamic, this study aims to explore potential vicious circles featured by the negative effects of the interplay (main/mediating effects) between perceived stressors in nursing linked to interpersonal conflicts (Conflicts-with-Physicians, Peers, Supervisors, Patients/their families), work-family inter-role conflicts (Work-Family/Family-Work-Conflicts), and work-related stress (Effort-Reward-Imbalance) on nurses' psychological/relational health (Anxiety, Depression, Somatization, Interpersonal-Sensitivity, Hostility). The potential moderating role of work-resources (Job-Control, Social-Support, Job-Satisfaction) in breaking vicious circles/promoting virtuous circles was also explored.MethodThe STROBE Checklist was used to report this cross-sectional multi-centre study. Overall, 265 nurses completed self-report questionnaires. Main/mediating/moderating hypotheses were tested by using Correlational-Analyses and Hayes-PROCESS-tool.ResultsData confirmed the hypothesized detrimental vicious circles (main/mediating effects), impairing nurses' psychological health conditions at individual level (Anxiety, Depression, Somatization), but also at relational level (Hostility and Interpersonal-Sensitivity). The moderating role of all work resources was fully supported.ConclusionFindings could be used to implement interventions/practices to effectively prevent the maintenance/exacerbation of vicious circles and promote psychological/relational wellbeing in healthcare settings and beyond.

Dataset Information

Ethical Conflict and Its Psychological Correlates among Hospital Nurses in the Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study within Swiss COVID-19 and Non-COVID-19 Wards.

Publications

Ethical Conflict and Its Psychological Correlates among Hospital Nurses in the Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study within Swiss COVID-19 and Non-COVID-19 Wards.

Similar Datasets

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