Developing Abilities to Navigate Through the Grey Zones in Complex Environments: Nurses' Reasons for Applying to a Clinical Ethics Residency for Nurses

摘要

Background and Purpose: Nurses face complex ethical issues in practice and have to determine appropriate actions. An inability to conceptualize or follow a preferred course of action can give rise to moral uncertainty or moral distress. Both moral uncertainty and moral distress are problematic for nurses and their patients. A program designed to increase nurse confidence in moral decision making, the clinical ethics residency for nurses (CERN), was offered selectively to nurses affiliated with two academic medical centers. This is a report of the analysis of their application essays.