perceived stress, moral distress, and spiritual intelligence of clinical nurses in the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

Background: the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic has increased the psychological problems of people all over the world. in this crisis, nurses experienced complex physical and psychological stress. objectives: this study aimed to determine the relationship of perceived stress with moral distress and the spiritual intelligence of clinical nurses in the context of covid-19. methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted on 285 clinical nurses working in public hospitals in the city of shahroud, iran. data collection instruments included a demographic data sheet, the perceived stress scale (pss), corley’s moral distress scale (mds), and king’s spiritual intelligence scale (sisri-24). descriptive (frequency, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (the independent t-test, pearson correlation coefficient, and logistic regression analysis) were used to analyze the data. results: the findings showed that nurses reported high levels of perceived stress (36.12 ± 5.14). perceived stress was positively and significantly correlated with moral distress (p = 0.001, r = 0.09). perceived stress was also significantly correlated with age (p < 0.01, r = 0.29) and work experience (p = 0.001, r = -0.85). conclusions: according to the findings, nurses must strive to reduce moral distress during the covid-19 pandemic. for this purpose, psychosocial support for clinical nurses, stress management courses, and providing welfare facilities for nurses are essential.