IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/clnure/v24y2015i4p401-414.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nurses Managing Patients’ Pain May Experience Moral Distress

Author

Listed:
  • Esther I. Bernhofer
  • Jeanne M. Sorrell

Abstract

Bedside nurses care for patients with pain every day but the task is often challenging. A previous qualitative study that investigated nurses’ experiences as they treated patients with pain suggested that nurses may suffer from moral distress if they are unsuccessful in providing adequate pain relief. As 20 of the original 48 nurses interviewed described frustration and distress when constrained from doing the right thing to provide pain relief for their patients, the purpose of this secondary qualitative analysis was to answer new research questions on nurse moral distress related to managing pain. Findings indicated that difficulties in nurse/physician communication and lack of pain education were contributors to nurses’ frustrations and provided barriers to optimal pain management. Many participants indicated a need for interprofessional pain management education. Further investigation is needed to clarify the impact of moral distress on nurses managing hospitalized patients’ pain.

Suggested Citation

  • Esther I. Bernhofer & Jeanne M. Sorrell, 2015. "Nurses Managing Patients’ Pain May Experience Moral Distress," Clinical Nursing Research, , vol. 24(4), pages 401-414, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:clnure:v:24:y:2015:i:4:p:401-414
    DOI: 10.1177/1054773814533124
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1054773814533124
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1054773814533124?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hsiang‐Ling Wang & Yun‐Fang Tsai, 2010. "Nurses’ knowledge and barriers regarding pain management in intensive care units," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(21‐22), pages 3188-3196, November.
    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. Hilde Wøien & Henning Værøy & Geir Aamodt & Ida T Bjørk, 2014. "Improving the systematic approach to pain and sedation management in the ICU by using assessment tools," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(11-12), pages 1552-1561, June.
    2. Oren Asman & Elena Slutsker & Semyon Melnikov, 2019. "Nurses' perceptions of pain management adequacy in mechanically ventilated patients," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(15-16), pages 2946-2952, August.

    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:sae:clnure:v:24:y:2015:i:4:p:401-414. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.