Dear Virginia Association of Community Psychiatric Nurses Member, I’m completing my Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) course work at the University of Virginia. As part of my final capstone project, I have chosen to examine the experience of moral distress in Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses in Virginia. According to a recent Gallop poll, many people believe that nurses have a high to very high standard of honesty and ethics. This high ethical standard at times can cause an internal conflict when constraints within the work place do not allow the nurse to care for their patients in a way that the nurse believes is ethical. |