Educational strategies for managing moral distress in student nurses: A scoping review

Abstract

Aims: To explore what content, teaching and learning activities are advocated by nurse educators to mitigate moral distress and related concepts in student nurses. Review Methods: The review was conducted according to Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines. The search strategy adopted their three-step method for systematic reviews. The eligibility criteria reflected the Population, Concept, Context format. Results: Following searches, 3809 records were screened against eligibility criteria, resulting in 42 eligible papers being included; 29 research studies and 13 non-empirical papers. We identified 236 content suggestions, mapped to 70 subject codes. Also, 217 teaching and learning activities are suggested and mapped to 41 coded activities. Data is charted in tables and figures and results are discussed per related concept of moral distress. Conclusions: Educational content, and teaching and learning activities are heterogenous across the concepts influencing moral distress. There is overlap of content across different concepts. Moral sensitivity received the most publications. Development of research and educational strategies addressing other interrelated concepts would be advantageous for evidence-based curriculum development. Recommendations are made to develop evidence-based content and teaching and learning activities.