Re-Scripting Moral Distress

In this episode, Danica and Monica are joined by Monica’s colleague and former PhD supervisor, Dr. Jessica Polzer. Together, Monica and Jessica speak to the theoretical origins of ‘moral distress‘ as a concept within nursing scholarship and discuss the role of ‘counter stories’ as a way to diagnose moral distress as produced by institutional constraints. 

Content Warnings 

(37:26 – 38:51): Story of nurse in distress while caring for a patient who was septic and in need of critical care

References 

(17:15): Andrew Jameton’s definition of ‘moral distress’  

Jameton, A. (1984). Nursing practice: The ethical issues. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 

(17:30): Elizabeth Peter & Joan Liaschenko’s perspective on ‘moral distress’ 

Peter, E., & Liaschenko, J. (2004). Perils of proximity: a spatiotemporal analysis of moral distress and moral ambiguity. Nursing Inquiry, 11(4), 218-225. 

Peter, E., & Liaschenko, J. (2013). Moral Distress Reexamined: A Feminist Interpretation of Nurses' Identities, Relationships, and Responsibilities. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 10(3). DOI: 10.1007/s11673-013-9456-5 

(47:34): Monica Molinaro and Jessica Polzer on ‘counter stories’ 

Molinaro, M., Polzer, J., Laliberte Rudman, D., Savundranayagam, M. (2023). "I can't be the nurse I want to be": Counter-stories of moral distress in nurses' narratives of pediatric oncology caregiving. Social Science & Medicine. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115677