Association Between Moral Distress and Job Satisfaction of Japanese Psychiatric Nurses

Moral distress of psychiatric nurses may affect their job satisfaction or quality of nursing care, thus examination of their moral distress is a significant issue for practice. The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of moral distress and job satisfaction, and association between moral distress and job satisfaction. One hundred and thirty nurses who worked in psychiatric wards in a hospital in Japan completed the Moral Distress Scale for psychiatric nurses (MDS-P) and the Job Satisfaction scale (JS). The MDS-P consisted of subdomains such as “unethical conduct by caregivers,” “low staffing,” and “acquiescence to violations of patients’ rights” in intensity and frequency; the JS consisted of seven subcategories. An institutional review board in the researcher’s college approved this study. Results showed that the “acquiescence to violations of patients’ rights” was the highest of the subdomains of MDS-P, and the “interactions among nurses” was the highest of the subdomains of the JS. The unethical conduct by caregivers (MDS-P) score was negatively correlated with administration (JS) for intensity (r = -.40, p < .001) and frequency (r = .37, p < .001). Moreover “acquiescence to violations of patients’ rights (MDSP)” was also negatively correlated with the “task requirement (JS)” score for intensity (r = -0.49, p < .001) and for frequency (r = -0.50, p < .001). These results suggest that reduction of moral distress increases job satisfaction particularly for administration and task requirement in nursing care.