ArticleNursing ethics2024
Understanding moral distress in home-care nursing: An interview study.
Article in Nursing ethics, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Moral conflicts in home-based care: a meta-synthesis of qualitative research.BMC medical ethics · 2025Pooled it
- Nurses' experiences of moral suffering: A qualitative interview study.Nursing ethics · 2026Article
- Health status, health behavior and perceived stress of nursing staff in Germany: a scoping review.BMC nursing · 2026Article
- Factors supporting resilient performance and mental well-being among health care professionals in home care settings: a qualitative study.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- The process of nurses' confrontation with ethical conflicts in home care: a grounded theory study.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Article
- Nurses' perspectives on clinical competence to identify loneliness and depression in older people in home care: a qualitative study.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- On dementia, duties, and daughters. An ethical analysis of healthcare professionals being confronted with conflicts regarding filial duties in informal dementia care.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMoral distress is a far-reaching problem for nurses in different settings as it threatens their health.
aimThis study examined which situations lead to moral distress in home-care nursing, how and with which consequences home-care nurses experience moral distress, and how they cope with morally stressful situations and the resulting moral distress. RESEARCH
designA qualitative interview study with reflexive thematic analysis was used. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 home-care nurses in Germany. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: The study was approved by the Data Protection Office and Ethics Committee of the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
findingsTwenty (14 female and 6 male) home-care nurses were interviewed between April and August 2023 at their chosen location. The situations leading to moral distress were inadequate care of the person in need of care, not being able to protect one's health, extended responsibility for the entire care arrangement, work-privacy conflicts, and conflicts between the understanding of care or professional ethics and the performance and billing system. The nurses experienced moral distress as they worked alone and provided care in the patient's territory. Short- and long-term strains with destructive cognitions, negative emotions, physical symptoms, and health consequences were reported. They faced challenges in coping with moral distress on institutional and individual levels.
conclusionsIn cases of tension between the service and billing system and the understanding of these nurses' care services, moral distress is unavoidable. Alternative forms of organization and billing modalities, such as payment by time and the expansion and refinancing of service, should be implemented. The latter relates to systematic case and ethics meetings. Further, a transfer of medical activities, such as the prescription of wound material to registered nurses, could prevent morally stressful situations and improve patients' quality of care.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.