Table 1.
Demographic characteristics and moral distress by job type
| Nurse | Other Health-care Professional |
Non-professional with Patient Contact | Non-professional with no Patient Contact | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N = 46 | N = 71 | N = 34 | N = 62 | ||||||||
| n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | Chi 2 | p | ||
| Age | 18–30 | 19 | 41 | 18 | 25 | 10 | 29 | 18 | 29 | ||
| 31–40 | 12 | 26 | 21 | 30 | 11 | 32 | 14 | 23 | |||
| 41–50 | 10 | 22 | 18 | 25 | 7 | 21 | 15 | 24 | |||
| Over 50 | 5 | 11 | 14 | 20 | 8 | 18 | 15 | 24 | 6.3 | 0.71 | |
| Gender | Female | 44 | 96 | 56 | 79 | 28 | 82 | 49 | 79 | ||
| Other | 2 | 4 | 15 | 21 | 6 | 18 | 13 | 21 | 6.8 | 0.08 | |
| Education | Graduate or professional | 15 | 33 | 64 | 90 | 15 | 44 | 28 | 45 | ||
| Other | 31 | 67 | 7 | 10 | 19 | 56 | 34 | 55 | 48.9 | < 0.001 | |
| Marital | Married or Common-law | 27 | 59 | 44 | 62 | 20 | 59 | 32 | 52 | ||
| Single | 19 | 41 | 24 | 34 | 13 | 38 | 24 | 39 | |||
| Separated, divorced, widowed | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 6.8 | 0.34 | |
| Moral distress* | Minimal | 2 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 11 | 32 | 49 | 79 | ||
| Medium | 16 | 35 | 29 | 41 | 17 | 50 | 9 | 15 | |||
| High | 28 | 61 | 33 | 47 | 6 | 18 | 4 | 7 | 100.3 | < 0.001 | |
* Moral distress measured with the Measure of Moral Distress for Healthcare Providers. Range of scores: minimal = 0–5; moderate 6–64, high 65–432