Critical care nurses are responsible for providing life-sustaining care as well as care focused on the palliation of burdensome symptoms in the critically ill. As frontline providers for critically ill patients, critical care nurses often manifest states of moral distress. Moral distress is a psychological symptom that can occur when a critical care nurse holds a belief about a course of action that is considered be ethically right for a patient but is prevented from acting on that belief. The manifestation of moral distress among critical care nurses has been well-investigated and linked to a variety of organizational and intrapersonal factors. Moral distress is posited to be influenced by an organization’s ethical climate, an organization’s practices and resources for ethically challenging situations, and perceptions of psychological empowerment. These two organizational and intrapersonal factors have been posited to mitigate the frequency and intensity of moral distress among critical care nurses.

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