Situations that generate moral distress in mental health nurses

Abstract

Objective: to identify the situations that generate moral distress in mental health nurses in the national and international scientific literature. Methodology: an integrative literature review conducted in August 2020, with no time frame, in the LILACS, MEDLINE and Scopus databases. As a search strategy, the following descriptors were used: “Moral Distress”, “Mental Health”, “Nursing” and “Ethics in Nursing” with different combinations, using the Boolean operators “and” and “or”. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria following the PRISMA recommendation, 15 articles were selected for analysis. Results: it was identified that the ethical/moral problems and institutional problems/impediments encompass the greatest situations that generate moral distress in mental health nurses worldwide, and the coping strategy most pointed out by the articles is moral deliberation. Conclusion: studies on moral distress in mental health nurses are still incipient, considering the relevance of the theme and its implications on the care practice and personal life of these professionals. In this sense, it is considered necessary to carry out more original studies in this area, also exploring the method of moral deliberation.