Abstract:
Background: Moral distress is a complex phenomenon of human experience affecting
individuals and whole community. Moral distressis a serious problem amongnurses and it has
negative effect on nurse’s performance.
Objective: The aim of this study was to assess predictors of moral distress among nurses
working in Jimma university medical center, Jimma Zone, Jimma Town, South West Ethiopia,
April 2019
Method: Institution based cross-sectional study design was used. Stratified simple random
sampling technique was applied. Data was collected using structured self- administered
questionnaire, which contained socio demographic characteristics, Hamric's Moral Distress
Scale-Revised(MDS-R), personal factors and organizational factors. The study was conducted
from April 9 –May 9. Data was entered into Epi data version 3.1 and analysed by SPSS software
version 20. Descriptive statistics, bivariate logistic regression analysis, multivariable logistic
regression analysis were performed. Then finally, adjusted odd ration at (95%) of CI with P
value < 0.05 were considered statistical significance. Results were presented in tables and
figures.
Result: Among the study participants 174 (70.16%) of nurses hadexperienced high level of moral
distress. Sex, working hours, professional commitment, autonomy and working environment were
statistically significant as predictors of moral distress. In addition to this, job satisfaction was
negativelycorrelated with moral distress, but job satisfaction was positively correlated to
personal and organizational factors.
Conclusion:Moral distress is a current problem of nurses. Two third of the nurses were
experienced high level of moral distress. Sex, working hours per week, professional commitment,
autonomy and working environment were identifiedas predictors of moral distress.
Recommendation: To reduce the level of moral distress policy makers and different responsible
bodies should develop reduction management programs andcoping strategies including financial
and non-financial benefit among hospital nurses.
