The relationship between moral development and moral distress in Bam

Introduction: Moral distress is one of the most common ethical issues in health profession that can have different consequences for nurses to be followed .This study aims to develop ethical and moral distress communication among nurses in Bam. The sample included 166 nurses of educational hospitals in the city of Bam in 2015, the questionnaire was based on Corley’s Moral Distress and kohlberg moral distress. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20 software, descriptive statistics Spearman’s correlation coefficient, independent samples t-test and ANOVA. Results: 10 (0.6%) of nurses were in the pre-conventional level, 51 (30.7%) in conventional, 94 (56/6%) in the post-conventional (NP). It is worth noting that at the preconventional level individuals are subject to pure obedience; There was a significant relationship between repetitive distress and age (P <0.05). This means that the higher the age of nurses, the lower the severity of distress. Also, gender had a significant effect on nurses' moral distress (p <0.05). According to the results of this study, there was no relationship between moral development and moral distress in women. Conclusion: In this study, severity and repetition of moral distress in clinical settings had no effect on nurses' moral development level. The level of moral distress was moderate in intensity and repetition. Also, about half of the nurses surveyed were at the postconventional level, which indicated that the level of nurses' moral development was undesirable. Therefore, due to the results and lack of relationship between individual characteristics and moral development, it is necessary to pay more attention to the ethical education of nurses of all genders and backgrounds at any age.