Healthcare· 2026Q1
Interventions to Address Moral Distress in Nurses and Other Healthcare Professionals: A Scoping Review and Evidence Gap Map
- 1citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
A scoping review of 32 studies found that interventions for moral distress in healthcare professionals primarily focus on education and ethics deliberation, acting at the individual/team level around or after the moral event, with only one intervention targeting the source and few at the organizational level.
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Key points
- 32 studies were reviewed for interventions targeting moral distress in healthcare professionals.
- Interventions predominantly focused on education (13/32) and ethics deliberation/consultation (9/32).
- Most interventions were delivered at the individual or team level (27/32) and acted around (24/32) or after (7/32) the moral event.
- Only one intervention targeted the source of moral distress, and few acted at the organizational level.
- Methodological quality was low, with only 2 of 32 studies meeting all design-specific appraisal criteria.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Background/Objectives: To map interventions intended to influence moral distress in nurses and other healthcare professionals by intervention modality, organisational level, and point of action in the moral-distress process, and to appraise the methodological quality of the underlying studies. Methods: Scoping review with an evidence gap map, reported in accordance with the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews. PubMed, Ovid (MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane CENTRAL and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews), CINAHL and the Web of Science Core Collection were searched without language, date or publication-status restrictions (databases searched to 13 July 2026), supplemented by forward and backward citation searching. Records were screened, charted and coded independently by two reviewers (coding kappa 0.75 to 0.84 by dimension). Charting used best-fit framework synthesis, and methodological quality was appraised with the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool 2018 at the item level. Findings were synthesised descriptively through frequency counts and cross-tabulation and displayed as an evidence gap map. Results: Thirty-two studies were included, most from the United States (20 of 32). Interventions clustered on education (13 of 32) and ethics deliberation or consultation (9 of 32), were delivered predominantly at the individual or team level (27 of 32), and acted around the moral event (24 of 32) or downstream of it (7 of 32); only one intervened at the source. A direct moral-distress measure was used in 24 of 32 studies, and the fourth, design-specific appraisal criterion was clearly met in only 2 of 32. Conclusions: The field acts around and after the moral event but rarely at its source or at the organisational level. Source-directed and organisational interventions and validated measurement, are the priorities for future research.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Healthcare, 2026 · DOI ↗
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