Dealing with Ethical Issues in Rehabilitation Medicine: The Relationship Between Managerial Support and Emotional Exhaustion is Mediated by Moral Distress and Enhanced by Positive Affectivity and Resilience

Aims: To analyse whether managerial support and ethical vision of patient care would be related to emotional exhaustion directly or through moral distress and whether these relationships would be conditional on individual levels of positive affectivity and resilience.

Background: Although some studies described the effects of ethical climate, moral distress, resilience and positive affectivity on emotional exhaustion, there are no attempts of explicative models containing these variables.

Methods: A total of 222 Italian professionals employed in neuro-rehabilitation medicine units participated in this cross-sectional study. Descriptive statistics, mediation and moderated mediation analyses were conducted using SPSS.

Results: Managerial support and ethical vision of patient care were negatively related to emotional exhaustion, directly and through moral distress. Professionals high in resilience and positive affectivity benefited more from the protective effect of managerial support on emotional exhaustion through moral distress.

Conclusion: Ethical climate represents a protective factor against moral distress and emotional exhaustion. Moreover, individual levels of positive affectivity and resilience may increase the beneficial effects deriving from managerial support in dealing with ethical issues.

Implication For Nursing Management: Health organisations may consider developing strategies to improve ethical climate, enhance managers' ability to support team in dealing with ethical issues and foster employees' positive affectivity and resilience.