ArticleCurationis2025
Moral injury and its effects on academic performance of student nurses in South Africa.
Article in Curationis, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Life in the slow lane: reflective practice in postgraduate Emergency Medicine training in South Africa.African journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence · 2026Review
- The serial mediating effects of moral resilience and moral courage on the relationship between moral injury and positive coping style in Chinese nursing interns.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
backgroundMorals are norms of conduct, behaviour and guidelines that nurses must uphold and observe in nursing. Moral codes require nurses and student nurses to respect human rights and dignity, and act with sound ethical judgement. However, when student nurses witness and fail to prevent acts that transgress their deeply held moral beliefs, their moral code is damaged, and deep emotional wounds ensue, leading to moral injury.
objectivesThis study aimed to investigate the prevalence and effects of moral injury in student nurses at a higher education institution in South Africa.
methodA quantitative, non-experimental cross-sectional survey was relied upon. The total population sampling method was applied, resulting in 124 respondents. Data were collected among the undergraduate student nurses registered at a higher education institution in Johannesburg from first to final year using a self-administered Moral Injury Symptom Scale - Healthcare Professionals questionnaire. Data were analysed using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics version 28 software.
resultsThe results indicated that more than a third (34%) of students experienced moral injury. Furthermore, a positive significant relationship between the presence of moral injury and academic performance among the students was noted (p = 0.029).
conclusionIn this study, the prevalence of moral injury among student nurses was investigated and its effects on academic performance were reported.Contribution: The effects of moral injury among student nurses indicate a need for higher education institutions to design and implement nursing curriculum that would assist students to develop moral resilience and ethical behaviour.
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