evaluation of the level of moral distress in nurses and physicians involved with patients with new coronavirus (covid 19)

Background: the spread of new coronavirus in the world and its intensification as a pandemic has challenged the world health system. meanwhile, physicians and nurses at the forefront of the fight against this disease, due to its emergence and lack of treatment resources may face ethical challenges in treating patients. methods: this cross-sectional study was performed in 2020 on nurses and physicians working in hospitals affiliated to mashhad university of medical sciences, who were in contact with patients with covid19. moral distress was measured using the corley questionnaire. data analysis was performed using spss software version 18 and descriptive and inferential tests. results: 117 nurses and physicians involved with patients with the covid19 in hospitals in mashhad participated in the study. 67.5% were nurses and 32.5% were physicians. the majority of them were women (65%) and more than half of them had a bachelor's degree (55.6%). 70.9% of them had direct contact with covid19 patients. the frequency of the level of moral distress in the majority of personnel involved with patients with coronavirus was moderate (66.7). also, the severity of distress and its recurrence in personnel were 66.7% and 65.8%, respectively. the level of severe moral distress in nurses (32.9%) was higher than physicians (28.9%). also, the severity and recurrence of moral distress were reported in nurses higher than physicians. conclusion: nurses, as the group that has the most duration and intensity of contact with patients with coronavirus, experience more moral distress than physicians. however, the level of moral distress in physicians could not be ignored. this highlights the need for guidelines to address these ethical challenges. identifying these challenges should be on the agenda of future qualitative studies.