How Supportive Ethical Relationships Are Negatively Related to Palliative Care Professionals’ Negative Affectivity and Moral Distress: A Portuguese Sample

Francisca Rego, Valentina Sommovigo, Ilaria Setti, Anna Giardini, Elsa Alves, Julliana Morgado and Marina Maffoni
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Francisca Rego: Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, 4200-319 Porto, Portugal
Valentina Sommovigo: Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences, Unit of Applied Psychology, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Ilaria Setti: Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences, Unit of Applied Psychology, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Anna Giardini: IT Department, Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Elsa Alves: Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, 4200-319 Porto, Portugal
Julliana Morgado: Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences, Federal University of Pará, Belém 66075-110, Brazil
Marina Maffoni: Psychology Unit of Montescano Institute, Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, 27040 Montescano, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 7, 1-17

Abstract: In the modern healthcare landscape, moral distress has become an increasingly common phenomenon among healthcare professionals. This condition is particularly prevalent among palliative care professionals who are confronted with bioethical issues in their daily practice. Although some studies described the effects of poor ethical climate and negative affectivity on moral distress, how these variables could be incorporated into a single model is still unclear. Thus, this study aims to investigate whether ethical relationships with the hospital could be related to the intensity and frequency of moral distress, both directly and as mediated by professionals’ negative affectivity. Sixty-one Portuguese palliative care professionals completed web-based self-report questionnaires. After exploring descriptive statistics, mediation analyses were performed using the partial least squares method. The results indicated that the presence of positive relationships with the hospital reduced the professionals’ negative affectivity levels. This, in turn, led palliative care professionals to experience a lower frequency and intensity of moral distress. Being a physician was positively associated with negative affectivity but not with the frequency of moral distress. Considering the protective role of ethical relationships with hospitals, health organizations could consider implementing interventions to improve hospitals’ ethical climate and provide staff with ethics training programs.

Keywords: moral distress; ethical climate; negative affectivity; healthcare professionals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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