Empowerment Program for Moral Distress in the Nursing Profession: A Qualitative Study

The study explored moral distress among nurses as a basis for the creation of empowerment program. Since moral distress is a wide-ranged phenomenon, its magnitude has affected health providers specially nurses’ who are working in a diverse and complex clinical environment. A qualitative descriptive phenomenology was used in this study. Further, 30 nurses from different clinical areas of selected hospitals in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija, Philippines were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide questions. These participants were also purposively selected. The rigor of this study focus on the researchers’ meticulous data gathering and data analysis using Colaizzi’s method that represents moral distress as a serious phenomenon that affect nurses and the delivery of health care.

Based from the shared experiences of the nurse-participants, several themes emerged. Alighting, accounting and aftermath represents antecedents of moral distress, Physiologic, psychological and perpetual manifestations accounts to consequences of moral distress and conveying, confronting, communicating, consulting and culminating signifies their moral decisions. These significant themes where the basis for the conceptualization and formulation of the APC’s of moral distress wherein an empowerment and debriefing program was formulated that will address the negative impact of moral distress to nursing.

Recommendations focus on the regular implementation of empowerment and debriefing program, revisiting hospital policies that will both benefit patients and health providers, integrating moral distress to nursing curriculum and strategies that will strengthen nurses’ value integrity and morale.