Critical care nurses, ethical decision-making and stress

Considerable attention has focused on describing ethical issues that critical care nurses face in their practice; however, less attention has been directed at describing the process of ethical decision-making, Systematic research linking aspects of ethical-decision making and stress is lacking. This cross-sectional study examines the relationship between selected aspects of ethical decisionmaking, stress and selected nurse characteristics. Sixty-one critical care nurses completed the Nurse's Ethical Decision Making - ICU Questionnaire and the Health Professions Stress Inventory. Findings revealed that nurses who selected the patient advocacy model had significantly higher nurse autonomy scores, that perceived anxiety had a negative association with nurse autonomy, and that workplace restrictions and stress were related.