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Moral Distress and Attitudes About Timing Related to Comfort Care for Hospitalized Patients: A Survey of Inpatient Providers and Nurses.
Am J Hosp Palliat Care. 2019 Apr 09;:1049909119843136
Authors: Bender MA, Andrilla CHA, Sharma RK, Hurd C, Solvang N, Mae-Baldwin L
Abstract
CONTEXT: Providing nonbeneficial care at the end of life and delays in initiating comfort care have been associated with provider and nurse moral distress.
OBJECTIVE: Evaluate provider and nurse moral distress when using a comfort care order set and attitudes about timing of initiating comfort care for hospitalized patients.
METHODS: Cross-sectional survey of providers (physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants) and nurses at 2 large academic hospitals in 2015. Providers and nurses were surveyed about their experiences providing comfort care in an inpatient setting.
RESULTS: Two hundred five nurse and 124 provider surveys were analyzed. A greater proportion of nurses compared to providers reported experiencing moral distress "some, most, or all of the time" when using the comfort care order set (40.5% and 19.4%, respectively, P = .002). Over 60% of nurses and providers reported comfort care was generally started too late in a patient's course, with physician trainees (81.4%), as well as providers (80.9%) and nurses (84.0%) < 5 years from graduating professional school most likely to report that comfort care is generally started too late.
CONCLUSIONS: The majority of providers and nurses reported that comfort care was started too late in a patient's course. Nurses experienced higher levels of moral distress than providers when caring for patients using a comfort care order set. Further research is needed to determine what is driving this moral distress in order to tailor interventions for nurses and providers.
PMID: 30966758 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]