Factors Contributory to Ethical Distress Experienced by Nurses in Kenya

Abstract

Nurses in resource poor countries in Africa struggle daily with inadequate supplies of drugs, safe water, medical equipment and essential supplies. Shortages of these resources means that nurses are unable to provide quality care thereby leading to frustration and demoralization directly from the lack of resources and indirectly from the nurses’ unhappiness. The aim of this study was to describe factors of Ethical distress as experienced by nurses in Kenya. A qualitative phenomenological design was used. The informants identified the factors they believed had contributed to their ethical distress experiences as being lack of resources, patients’ poverty, cultural beliefs and absenteeism among nurses. Based on the results of the study, it is concluded that the institutions’ lack of resources and their patients’ poverty greatly affect nurses’ clinical performance that compounds their struggles with their patients’ conflicting cultural beliefs. It appeared that the common factors causing ethical distress included: cultural beliefs, lack of resources, staff shortage and poverty among patients, hence to reduce these common contributory factors of ethical distress such as cultural beliefs and lack of resources, nurses can join programs that will train them to offer cultural competent care to their clients and from these programs they can learn to appreciate different cultures and approaches to patient care. To curb the problem of poverty among the patients’, hospital administration personnel can check with patients and create awareness about registration of  health insurance, in order to reduce the problems of patients not being able to pay bills.

Key words: Ethical distress, Nurses, demands, supply, resources, culture, Absenteesim