Factors associated with ‘stress of conscience’ in healthcare
Aim: The main purpose of this study was to examine factors related to ‘stress of conscience’ i.e. stress related to a troubled conscience in healthcare. Methods: A series of questionnaires was completed by 423 healthcare employees in northern Sweden as part of this cross‐sectional study. The series...
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crwiley:10.1111/j.1471-6712.2007.00522.x 2024-10-13T14:09:50+00:00 Factors associated with ‘stress of conscience’ in healthcare Glasberg, Ann‐Louise Eriksson, Sture Norberg, Astrid 2008 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6712.2007.00522.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1471-6712.2007.00522.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1471-6712.2007.00522.x en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences volume 22, issue 2, page 249-258 ISSN 0283-9318 1471-6712 journal-article 2008 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6712.2007.00522.x 2024-09-27T04:16:20Z Aim: The main purpose of this study was to examine factors related to ‘stress of conscience’ i.e. stress related to a troubled conscience in healthcare. Methods: A series of questionnaires was completed by 423 healthcare employees in northern Sweden as part of this cross‐sectional study. The series of questionnaires comprised the ‘Stress of Conscience Questionnaire’, ‘Perception of Conscience Questionnaire’, ‘Revised Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire’, Social Interactions Scale, Resilience Scale and a Personal/Work Demographic form. Results: Nonautomatic stepwise regression analysis with forward inclusion resulted in a model that explained approximately 39.6% of the total variation in stress of conscience. Individual items associated with stress of conscience were; perceiving that conscience warns us against hurting others while at the same time not being able to follow one’s conscience at work and having to deaden one’s conscience to keep working in healthcare. In addition moral sensitivity items belonging to the factor ‘sense of moral burden’ were; one’s ability to sense patient’s needs means that one is doing more than one has strength for, having difficulty to deal with feelings aroused when a patient is suffering and one’s ability to sense patient’s needs means feeling inadequate all added significantly to the model. In addition, deficient social support from superiors, low levels of resilience and working in internal medicine wards were all associated with stress of conscience. Conclusion: Healthcare employees seem to experience stress of conscience in their everyday practise. Particular contributing factors are not being able to follow one’s conscience at work, and the ‘negative’ dimension of moral sensitivity – moral burden – which is an inability to deal with moral problems. Thus, in order for conscience and moral sensitivity to become an asset instead of a burden, healthcare employees need to be able to express their moral concerns. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Sweden Wiley Online Library Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences 22 2 249 258 |
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English |
description |
Aim: The main purpose of this study was to examine factors related to ‘stress of conscience’ i.e. stress related to a troubled conscience in healthcare. Methods: A series of questionnaires was completed by 423 healthcare employees in northern Sweden as part of this cross‐sectional study. The series of questionnaires comprised the ‘Stress of Conscience Questionnaire’, ‘Perception of Conscience Questionnaire’, ‘Revised Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire’, Social Interactions Scale, Resilience Scale and a Personal/Work Demographic form. Results: Nonautomatic stepwise regression analysis with forward inclusion resulted in a model that explained approximately 39.6% of the total variation in stress of conscience. Individual items associated with stress of conscience were; perceiving that conscience warns us against hurting others while at the same time not being able to follow one’s conscience at work and having to deaden one’s conscience to keep working in healthcare. In addition moral sensitivity items belonging to the factor ‘sense of moral burden’ were; one’s ability to sense patient’s needs means that one is doing more than one has strength for, having difficulty to deal with feelings aroused when a patient is suffering and one’s ability to sense patient’s needs means feeling inadequate all added significantly to the model. In addition, deficient social support from superiors, low levels of resilience and working in internal medicine wards were all associated with stress of conscience. Conclusion: Healthcare employees seem to experience stress of conscience in their everyday practise. Particular contributing factors are not being able to follow one’s conscience at work, and the ‘negative’ dimension of moral sensitivity – moral burden – which is an inability to deal with moral problems. Thus, in order for conscience and moral sensitivity to become an asset instead of a burden, healthcare employees need to be able to express their moral concerns. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Glasberg, Ann‐Louise Eriksson, Sture Norberg, Astrid |
spellingShingle |
Glasberg, Ann‐Louise Eriksson, Sture Norberg, Astrid Factors associated with ‘stress of conscience’ in healthcare |
author_facet |
Glasberg, Ann‐Louise Eriksson, Sture Norberg, Astrid |
author_sort |
Glasberg, Ann‐Louise |
title |
Factors associated with ‘stress of conscience’ in healthcare |
title_short |
Factors associated with ‘stress of conscience’ in healthcare |
title_full |
Factors associated with ‘stress of conscience’ in healthcare |
title_fullStr |
Factors associated with ‘stress of conscience’ in healthcare |
title_full_unstemmed |
Factors associated with ‘stress of conscience’ in healthcare |
title_sort |
factors associated with ‘stress of conscience’ in healthcare |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6712.2007.00522.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1471-6712.2007.00522.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1471-6712.2007.00522.x |
genre |
Northern Sweden |
genre_facet |
Northern Sweden |
op_source |
Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences volume 22, issue 2, page 249-258 ISSN 0283-9318 1471-6712 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6712.2007.00522.x |
container_title |
Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences |
container_volume |
22 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
249 |
op_container_end_page |
258 |
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1812816889404981248 |