Structuring Moral Meaning in Psychiatric Nursing Practice

Comparatively little is known about the experiential aspect of moral decision making in psychiatric nursing. Earlier research in this area has mainly focused on the cognitive aspects of moral reasoning, using hypothetical cases. The purpose of this study was to examine the experience of moral decision making in psychiatric nursing practice. In-depth interviews with fourteen nurses, purposively selected for their reputed competency and long experience in psychiatric care, were conducted. By using the strategy of 'constant comparative analysis', the grounded theory, 'structuring moral meaning' was derived, which consists of three interrelated processes, perceiving, knowing and judging. This process identifies the nurse's manner of making sense of a perceived moral conflict and justifying 'good' actions within the nurse-patient framework.