Relationship between feelings of disgust experienced when nurses develop negative feelings toward patients and moral sensitivity

DOI: 10.5176/2315-4330_WNC19.255

Authors: Assoc. Prof. Rieko MATSUURA

Abstract: Purpose: This study aims to elucidate the relationship between feelings of disgust and moral sensitivity experienced by nurses when nurses develop negative feelings toward patients in the process of the nursing work, and examine possible support measures for nurses. Methods: A self-rating questionnaire survey was conducted with 1,500 nurses working in 15 facilities, and among the responses 371 were determined to be valid (24.7%). The questionnaire is comprised of 20 items from the Negative Feeling toward Patient Frequency scale [1], Japanese Version of the Revised Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire (J-MSQ)[2], Self-Esteem Scale by Rosenberg [3,4], demographics and workplace environmental factors. Results: The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient with J-MSQ showed no significant correlation between the mean score of feelings of disgust when developing negative feelings toward patients, but statistically significantly positive correlations (p = 0.23 p < .01) were found with the mean score of the Self-Esteem Scale. Conclusions: The findings suggest the effectiveness of support measures for nurses to maintain and improve self-esteem so that they will be able to provide nursing without losing moral sensitivity even in situations where they experience developing negative feelings toward patients.

Keywords: negative feelings toward patients, relationship between patients and nurses, moral sensitivity