Validity and reliability study of the Moral Distress Questionnaire in Turkish for nurses

OBJECTIVE: to determine the validity and reliability of the Turkish language version of the Moral Distress Questionnaire for nurses. METHOD: methodological study whose sample consisted of 200 nurses working in the internal medicine and surgery clinics of a university hospital. Data was collected using the personal information form and the Moral Distress Questionnaire for nurses. RESULTS: in the Main Components Analysis, the items were grouped under three factors. Findings regarding confirmatory factor analysis: chi-square goodness: 2.28, goodness of fit index: 0.88, comparative fit index: 0.88, non-normed fit index: 0.86, root mean square error of approximation: 0.07. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was found to be 0.79 as a result of the analysis conducted in order to test the internal consistency of the scale. It was seen that these three factors explained 44.92% of the total variance. CONCLUSION: in this present study, the Turkish version of the Moral Distress Questionnaire was found to be valid and reliable for the Turkish society. It is recommended that the Moral Distress Questionnaire for nurses should be used in future studies to be conducted with nurses in order to investigate of issues of ethical dilemma.