What's Philosophical About Moral Distress?

Moral distress is a well-documented phenomenon in the nursing profession, and increasingly thought to be implicated in a nation-wide nursing shortage in the US. First identified by the philosopher Andrew Jameton in 1984, moral distress has also proven resistant to various attempts to prevent its occurrence or at least mitigate its effects. While this would seem to be bad news for nurses and their patients, it is potentially good news for philosophical counselors, for whom there is both socially important and philosophically interesting work to be done. In an effort to encourage such work, this paper explicates the philosophical (as opposed to more purely psychological or institutional) contours of the problem. A subsequent paper, titled 'A Philosophical Counseling Approach to Moral Distress,' will highlight ways in which such a response would differ from the strategies so far deployed within the nursing profession

Review - Motive and Rightness by Steven Sverdlik

Review - Motive and Rightness by Steven Sverdli

Understanding How Student Nurses Experience Morally Distressing Situations: Caring for Patients with Different Values and Beliefs in the Clinical Environment

Introduction/Background: Moral distress and related concepts surrounding morality and ethical decision-making have been given much attention in nursing. Despite the general consensus that moral distress is an affective response to being unable to act morally, the literature attests to the need for increased clarity regarding theoretical and conceptual constructs used to describe precisely what the experience of moral distress involves. The purpose of this study is to understand how student nurses experience morally distressing situations when caring for patients with different values and beliefs than their own in the clinical environment Methods: This study is based on secondary analysis of participant data. The stories of eight student nurses who completed the original study were reviewed following Yin’s multiple-case study design. Results: Findings suggest there is a subtle form of moral distress that has been under appreciated in the literature and differs from Jameton’s classic definition. While traditional institutional triggers to moral distress are pervasive, personal conflict as a result of differing value systems may be a moral challenge faced by nursing students working with culturally diverse patients. Conclusion: Ethics education is needed in nursing school to reduce moral distress in the clinical environment. Nursing students need opportunities to develop moral reasoning skills in addition to their clinical skills. A philosophical approach to ethics education may be needed to prevent and alleviate moral distress

Incorporating Ethics into RCR Classrooms

From the article: Philosophy departments have been expanding their offerings in applied ethics and ethical decision making for a number of years, yet relatively little attention has been paid to incorporating ethical thinking in the context of Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) instruction

An Online Ethics Training Module for Public Relations Professionals: A Demonstration Project

The researchers developed and tested an online training module with both experienced public relations professionals and newcomers to the field with the hopes of helping them sharpen and refine their ethical decision-making skills. The researchers’ pilot study found that although most testers reported the Web site was difficult to navigate and/or found the ethical content to be complex, the majority believed their ethical decisionmaking abilities were improved. The module drew from the resources of the Center for Ethical Deliberation (CED) Web site developed by one of the researchers. The goal of the demonstration project, or pilot study, was to develop a specific “Public Relations” area on the CED Web site that would be devoted to the ethical issues likely to arise in the public relations field. These issues included 1) disclosure of information, 2) conflicts of interest, and 3) lying, or spinning information, for a client or an organization. The researchers tailored the CEDs Guided Deliberation Processes to these three, highlighting the specific links between these issues and more general ethical concepts and analytical tools. With some changes to the PR module and the CED site, this tool could be used by professionals, newcomers to the profession and students preparing for a PR career

An Online Ethics Training Module for Public Relations Professionals: a Demonstration Project

Peer review of online courses can be done at a distance using a combination of asynchronous course visits and synchronous discussion with online meeting tools. This technology-mediated approach gives online faculty the opportunity to experience an unfamiliar course interface from a student\u27s perspective, encourages a focus on design elements distinct from course content, and promotes a feeling of community. IT personnel can enhance this process by providing faculty with archived peer-review sessions and detailed how to instructions, while also facilitating their hands-on experience with new technologies