Resilience, Moral Distress, and Workplace Engagement in Emergency Department Nurses

Abstract

This cross-sectional, correlational study’s purpose was to evaluate the effects of resilience and moral distress on workplace engagement in emergency department nurses providing direct patient care. Data were collected from 175 emergency department nurses using a Web-based survey. The higher the nurses’ resilience and the lower their moral distress, the greater their workplace engagement. Resilience and moral distress were not correlated; furthermore, moral distress did not mediate a relationship between resilience and workplace engagement. Resilience was higher with greater job satisfaction, increased age, and longer tenure as a nurse. Workplace engagement increased with higher job satisfaction and less time seeking other employment. Moral distress scores were higher in nurses reporting lower job satisfaction. Multiple regression analysis revealed that resilience, job satisfaction, and moral distress were independent predictors of workplace engagement. Interventions that improve resilience and job satisfaction and/or lower moral distress may improve workplace engagement of emergency department nurses.

Impacts of morally distressing experiences on the mental health of Canadian health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…M = 108.9, SD = 70.70; Epstein et al, 2019 ), and comparable to moral distress research conducted among non-Canadian HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g. M = 113.4, SD = 60.30; Clark, Crawford, Hulse, & Polivka, 2021 ). The most frequently encountered morally distressing events, according to our sample, included witnessing low quality patient care due to poor team communication (82.9%), watching patient care suffer because of a lack of provider continuity (80.2%), and experiencing lack of administrative action or support for a problem that was compromising patient care (78.6%).…”

“…The aim of this study was to evaluate the associations between workplace experiences during COVID-19, moral distress, and the psychological well-being of HCWs. Unsurprisingly, moral distress scores were comparable to those found in studies conducted in a USA sample during the COVID-19 pandemic (Clark et al, 2021 ), and were higher than studies conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (Epstein et al, 2019 ). Interestingly, events endorsed in the current study as the most morally distressing included, for example, compromised quality of patient care as evidenced by lack of team support, provider continuity, and overburdened patient loads, as well as experiencing lack of support from administration.…”

Moral Distress in Healthcare Providers Who Take Care of Critical Pediatric Patients throughout Italy—Cultural Adaptation and Validation of the Italian Pediatric Instrument

“…However, this did not reach statistical significance on the convergent validity test. Many studies recently analyzed the correlation between resilience measured using the CD-RISC 2 scale and MD, with diverging results [ 46 , 47 ]. In addition, the latest MD mitigation strategies have development of moral resilience as a goal.…”

Resilience, Moral Distress, and Job Satisfaction Driving Engagement in Emergency Department Nurses

“…6,7 Resilient nurses may experience greater workplace engagement and lower workplace stress, which decreases the likelihood they would leave their jobs. 8 A 2018 online survey 9 of emergency department (ED) nurses found that resilience and job satisfaction predicted workplace engagement, whereas moral distress was negatively related to workplace engagement. Building on this work, we sought to further explore the association of variables and workplace engagement and the nature of workplace engagement in a subsample of participants.…”