IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v12y2023i7p371-d1179482.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Healthcare Workers’ Moral Distress during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review

Author

Listed:
  • Evija Nagle

    (Department of Health Psychology and Pedagogy, Rīga Stradiņš University, LV-1009 Rīga, Latvia)

  • Sanita Šuriņa

    (Department of Health Psychology and Pedagogy, Rīga Stradiņš University, LV-1009 Rīga, Latvia)

  • Ingūna Griškēviča

    (Department of Health Psychology and Pedagogy, Rīga Stradiņš University, LV-1009 Rīga, Latvia)

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers (HCWs) did not have the opportunity to provide high-quality and standard healthcare services. Research conducted during the pandemic has revealed widespread mental health problems among HCWs. Moral distress was noted as one of the critical issues that limited the performance of HCWs in providing quality care. The purpose of this scoping review was to create an overview of HCWs’ moral distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. The review was conducted according to the Arksey and O’Malley framework. A systematic literature search was performed in five database systems: Medline/PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, ProQuest, and the Cochrane Library, according to the inclusion/exclusion criteria. Relevant article titles and abstracts were retrieved. The final review included 16 publications identifying the moral distress of HCWs during the pandemic. In total, five themes characterizing the moral distress of HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic were identified: (1) a level of moral distress during the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) risk factors for moral distress during the COVID-19 pandemic; (3) moral and ethical dilemmas during the COVID-19 pandemic; (4) harm caused by moral distress to HCWs; and (5) intervention methods for reducing moral distress. The pandemic turned a health emergency into a mental health emergency for HCWs.

Suggested Citation

  • Evija Nagle & Sanita Šuriņa & Ingūna Griškēviča, 2023. "Healthcare Workers’ Moral Distress during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-17, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:7:p:371-:d:1179482
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/7/371/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/7/371/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Priya-Lena Riedel & Alexander Kreh & Vanessa Kulcar & Angela Lieber & Barbara Juen, 2022. "A Scoping Review of Moral Stressors, Moral Distress and Moral Injury in Healthcare Workers during COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-20, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniela Lemmo & Roberta Vitale & Carmela Girardi & Roberta Salsano & Ersilia Auriemma, 2022. "Moral Distress Events and Emotional Trajectories in Nursing Narratives during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-12, July.
    2. Mihaela Alexandra Gherman & Laura Arhiri & Andrei Corneliu Holman & Camelia Soponaru, 2022. "Injurious Memories from the COVID-19 Frontline: The Impact of Episodic Memories of Self- and Other-Potentially Morally Injurious Events on Romanian Nurses’ Burnout, Turnover Intentions and Basic Need ," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-25, August.
    3. Mihaela Alexandra Gherman & Laura Arhiri & Andrei Corneliu Holman & Camelia Soponaru, 2022. "Protective Factors against Morally Injurious Memories from the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nurses’ Occupational Wellbeing: A Cross-Sectional Experimental Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-42, September.
    4. Dominik Hinzmann & Katharina Schütte-Nütgen & Arndt Büssing & Olaf Boenisch & Hans-Jörg Busch & Christoph Dodt & Patrick Friederich & Matthias Kochanek & Guido Michels & Eckhard Frick, 2022. "Critical Care Providers’ Moral Distress: Frequency, Burden, and Potential Resources," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Kim Ritchie & Andrea M. D’Alessandro-Lowe & Andrea Brown & Heather Millman & Mina Pichtikova & Yuanxin Xue & Maxwell Altman & Isaac Beech & Mauda Karram & Fardous Hosseiny & Sara Rodrigues & Charlene , 2023. "The Hidden Crisis: Understanding Potentially Morally Injurious Events Experienced by Healthcare Providers during COVID-19 in Canada," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-12, March.
    6. Mihaela Alexandra Gherman & Laura Arhiri & Andrei Corneliu Holman & Camelia Soponaru, 2022. "The Moral Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nurses’ Burnout, Work Satisfaction and Adaptive Work Performance: The Role of Autobiographical Memories of Potentially Morally Injurious Events and Basic P," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-22, June.
    7. Ngqabutho Moyo & Anita D. Bhappu & Moment Bhebhe & Farai Ncube, 2022. "Perceived Risk of COVID-19 and Employee Decision-Making: How Psychological Distress during the Pandemic Increases Negative Performance Outcomes among Healthcare Workers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-16, June.
    8. Cordelia Cho & Wendy Y. K. Ko & Olivia M. Y. Ngan & Wai Tat Wong, 2022. "Exploring Professionalism Dilemma and Moral Distress through Medical Students’ Eyes: A Mixed-Method Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-18, August.
    9. Amoneeta Beckstein & Marie Chollier & Sangeeta Kaur & Ananta Raj Ghimire, 2022. "Mental Wellbeing and Boosting Resilience to Mitigate the Adverse Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Critical Narrative Review," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, May.
    10. Esther Alonso-Prieto & Holly Longstaff & Agnes Black & Alice K. Virani, 2022. "COVID-19 Outbreak: Understanding Moral-Distress Experiences Faced by Healthcare Workers in British Columbia, Canada," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-14, August.
    11. Andrea M. D’Alessandro-Lowe & Mauda Karram & Kim Ritchie & Andrea Brown & Heather Millman & Emily Sullo & Yuanxin Xue & Mina Pichtikova & Hugo Schielke & Ann Malain & Charlene O’Connor & Ruth Lanius &, 2023. "Coping, Supports and Moral Injury: Spiritual Well-Being and Organizational Support Are Associated with Reduced Moral Injury in Canadian Healthcare Providers during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(19), pages 1-17, September.
    12. Wirpsa, M.J. & Galchutt, P. & Price, C.S. & Schaefer, B. & Szilagyi, C. & Palmer, P.K., 2023. "Mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for healthcare workers: The experience of chaplains evaluating religious accommodation requests from coworkers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).
    13. Pedro Ángel Caro-Alonso & Beatriz Rodríguez-Martín & Julián Rodríguez-Almagro & Carlos Chimpén-López & Cristina Romero-Blanco & Ignacio Casado Naranjo & Antonio Hernández-Martínez & Fidel López-Espuel, 2023. "Nurses’ Perceptions of Ethical Conflicts When Caring for Patients with COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-20, March.
    14. Linda Schweitzer & Sean Lyons & Chelsie J. Smith, 2023. "Career Sustainability: Framing the Past to Adapt in the Present for a Sustainable Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-21, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:7:p:371-:d:1179482. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.