Date of Graduation

Spring 5-13-2020

Document Type

Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

College/School

School of Nursing and Health Professions

Department/Program

Nursing

Program

Family Nurse Practitioner

First Advisor

Jo Loomis, DNP, FNP-C, CHSE, CLC, ANLC, NCMP, CNL

Second Advisor

Kathleen Raffel, MSW, MBA, PhD

Abstract

Background: Nurses and nurse practitioners (NPs) face greater responsibility to address the ethical challenges that present during the course of patient care, due to advances in medical technology and pharmaceutical innovation, and because of widening disparities within the U.S. healthcare system. These ethical questions, which arise during the course of routine patient care, are increasing in both number and complexity in nearly every patient care setting. Even with codified ethical standards, unresolved and/or ongoing ethical questions and dilemmas pose further issues such as the development of moral distress. This pilot project was designed to help NPs and other healthcare workers (HCWs) in the out-patient setting mitigate these conflicts and resulting moral distress experienced in practice. Methods: A “one-stop-shopping” website containing ethics education and resources for reducing moral distress and promoting moral resilience was created and marketed to NPs and other HCWs via social media, email and in-person contact. Web analytics, a demographics survey, and two brief feedback surveys were used to elicit qualitative feedback and measure usefulness of the materials using 5-point Likert scale ranging from extremely useful to not useful at all. Results: 44 participants completed at least one survey with the majority indicating the ethics educational videos were either extremely or very useful and that this website repository was a good resource for addressing ethical problems and preventing moral distress in practice. Over 143 unique visitors and 569 page views were recorded during active data collection. Conclusion: All survey participants reported usefulness of the overall website and applicability to their current practice. Longer-term implications include the reduction of moral distress and development of moral resilience practices among nurse practitioners.

Keywords: ethics, ethical problem, education, moral distress, burnout, resilience

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