The effect of moral distress levels of surgical nurses on nursing care behaviors and related factors

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this study was to specify the effects of surgical nurses' moral distress on nursing caring behaviours and related factors. Material and Method: This analytical cross-sectional study was carried out with the nurses in the surgery service, intensive care units and operating theatre of a university hospital between January 2020 and September 2020. Ethics committee approval and institutional permission of the research were obtained before the study. After informing the nurses who met the research acceptance criteria and agreed to participate in the study, verbal and written consent was obtained. Data in the study was collected using "Nurse Introduction Form", "Moral Distress Inventory" and "Caring Behaviours Inventory-24" forms. Descriptive statistics, number percentage, mean, correlation and regression analysis were used to analyse data. Results: A statistically significant difference was found between nurses' gender(p<0,05), education level (p<0,05), the department they work in (p<0,001), the number of patients they care for (p<0,05), the number of operations carried out in their departments (p<0,001), satisfaction with level of nursing care in their departments (p<0,05), consideration of resigning due to moral distress (p<0,001) and total mean scores of the Moral Distress Scale. A statistically significant difference was found between education level, allocating enough time for patient care, satisfaction with level of nursing care in their departments, and the total score they got from the Caring Behaviours Scale-24, commitment, assurance and the mean scores of the sub-dimensions of respect; the number of patients receiving daily care and the sub-dimension score of assurance (p<0,05). There was no statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the Moral Distress Scale and the Caring Behaviours Scale-24 (p>0,05). Conclusion: It was found that surgical nurses' level of Moral Distress was low, the perception of caring behaviours was high in a positive sense and the level of moral distress had no effect on caring behaviours. Keywords: Moral Distress, Caring Behaviours, Perioperative Nursing, Nursing Care.