Psycometric characteristics of the Moral Distress Scale in Brazilian nursing professionals

The Moral Distress Scale was designed to assess the severity and frequency of the moral distress experienced by nursing professionals in everyday situations. The objective of this study was to analyze the psychometric characteristics of the Moral Distress Scale adapted to Brazilian nursing. Through factor analysis, five constructs were identified: lack of competence in the work team; disregard for patient autonomy, inadequate working conditions, denial of the nursing role as an advocate in terminal patients; denial of the nursing role as an advocate of the patient. The proposed pentafactorial solution is statistically and semantically more appropriate to the Brazilian nursing scenario. Based on these results, the scale is considered to be valid and reliable, showing the necessary requirements regarding convergent and discriminating validity as well as internal consistency to be used while evaluating the intensity and frequency of moral distress in Brazilian nursing professionals.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Barlem,Edison Luiz Devos, Lunardi,Valéria Lerch, Lunardi,Guilherme Lerch, Tomaschewski-Barlem,Jamila Geri, Almeida,Anderson Sousa de, Hirsch,Carolina Domingues
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Programa de Pós Graduação em Enfermagem 2014
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-07072014000300563
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Summary:The Moral Distress Scale was designed to assess the severity and frequency of the moral distress experienced by nursing professionals in everyday situations. The objective of this study was to analyze the psychometric characteristics of the Moral Distress Scale adapted to Brazilian nursing. Through factor analysis, five constructs were identified: lack of competence in the work team; disregard for patient autonomy, inadequate working conditions, denial of the nursing role as an advocate in terminal patients; denial of the nursing role as an advocate of the patient. The proposed pentafactorial solution is statistically and semantically more appropriate to the Brazilian nursing scenario. Based on these results, the scale is considered to be valid and reliable, showing the necessary requirements regarding convergent and discriminating validity as well as internal consistency to be used while evaluating the intensity and frequency of moral distress in Brazilian nursing professionals.