Goals of Care Intervention to Reduce Moral Distress in Critical Care Nurses

Abstract

Moral distress (MD) has been studied in the nursing workforce since the 1980s. The critical care setting is at risk of high levels of MD due to advancing technologies and collateral end-of-life (EOL) care provision. This project evaluates the impact of establishing standard triggers for goals of care (GOC) conversations in the intensive care unit (ICU) and the influence on MD in ICU nurses. The Measure of Moral Distress for Healthcare Professionals (MMD-HP) was utilized to quantify a baseline level of MD. After GOC conversations were implemented, MD scores were evaluated with an associated decrease in MD.