Opinion Editorial: Low Morale Challenges in Nursing Profession

This opinion editorial, written by a nursing student, critically analyzes the challenges to realizing the aspirations of the common good within the nursing profession, focusing on low morale among staff. The editorial explores the issue both locally and globally, highlighting how factors such as increased harassment, poor working conditions, and lack of evidence-based practice contribute to low morale. It references Catholic social teachings to emphasize the importance of caring for others, human dignity, and solidarity, while illustrating how low morale hinders the provision of quality care and undermines the common good. The editorial discusses the impact of these issues on both nurses and patients, emphasizing the need for improved working conditions and a common evidence-based practice to enhance job satisfaction and promote solidarity within the healthcare community. The student emphasizes the significance of addressing these challenges to ensure the well-being of healthcare professionals and the delivery of effective healthcare services worldwide.

Nursing opinion editorial
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According to Annett, (2016), The Roman Catholicism defines common good as the total sum of
social conditions that enables people, whether as a community or at personal level to fulfill their
needs easily. Despite nurses not making use of theological concept to address the concept of
common good, they encounter cases that need theological knowledge. For example serving
people from diverse culture and meeting the health needs of members of a given society. Nurses
are required to find ways of upholding integrity at individual level and ensuring social integrity.
Although nurses and other members of staff in health institution do their best to uphold ethical
standards when providing essential services to community members, they undergo multiple
challenges that lower their morale. Low morale of health among staff members in health
organization is a challenge in realizing the aspiration of common good. For the purpose of this
opinion editorial I am going to dwell on low morale among staff in health institutions locally and
globally.
Locally
At the community level nurses have the responsibility of meeting patient needs. To meet all these
needs, nurses need to be committed and sacrificial in their work. Consequently, studies have
revealed that staff members experience increased harassment not only from their bosses but also
from the local patients. The consistent harassment and poor condition in the workplaces have
resulted to a lot of stress among the nurses. The outcome of this pressure is low morale of
workers and nurses. One of the principles of common good is caring for others according to
Martins, (2019). By sacrificing their commitments to serve in these health institutions, it shows
that nurses respect common good principles. However, when staff members’ morale is low, they
risk offering poor services that is against the nursing professional standards. Such actions are
some of challenges in realizing the aspiration of the common good.

On the other hand, Yuen, (2020) stated that one of the principle of common good emphasize that
human beings are sacred. The meaning of this principle is that human beings are unique creature
and they deserve humanity. Consequently, in the local settings many community members have
gone against this principle and continue to mistreat nurses in health institutions. It is a move that
lead to low morale among staff members especially nurses that interact with patients directly
Globally
It is important to note that things that take place locally influence the global impact. At the
international level, the nursing community have goals that they need to realize. However,
consistent stressful actions towards nurses is a hindrance is a hindrance to realization of
aspiration of the common good globally. The Catholic social teachings illustrate that it is the
responsibility of every individual to realize common according to Duke, (2020). The nursing
profession faces the challenge of lack of a common evidence based practice. It is one of the
causes of low morale among the nurses and staff members. As a nurse, it is always important to
take actions based on proof. For instance, the data from the clinical screening need common
interpretations based on evidence. The issue of a common evidenced based practice will show
high level of caring for others according to Mommaerts & Massey, (2017). However, the global
problem causes low morale among workers and therefore the outcome is low. It is a hindrance to
realization of the aspiration of common good.
Low morale is also the cause of lack of satisfaction for both nurses and patients. In the global
settings, it is important to ensure that both nurses and patients are satisfied with their inputs when
they interact. It satisfy the common good as everybody will enjoy both good health and social
life. The Catholic Social teachings also emphasizes on solidarity according to Massaro &
Thomas, (2019). Low morale in health institutions means that everyone is not putting enough

effort to achieve the staff needs. Lack of solidarity when addressing morale issue is a challenge
in achieving common good. It means that the problem might escalate to appoint where other staff
members might leave the work. The global result of such move is that many people will lack
critical health services. Therefore reducing the chances of realizing the aspiration of common
good.

References
Annett, A. (2016). Human flourishing, the common good, and Catholic social teaching. World
happiness report, 2.
Duke, G. (2020). 15 The principle of the common good. Christianity and Global Law.
Martins, N. O. (2019). Adam Smith and Catholic Social Teaching. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-
11.
Massaro, S. J., & Thomas, J. (2019). Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries and
Interpretations. Journal of Catholic Social Thought, 16(1), 127-129.
Mommaerts, E., & Massey, J. (2017). Session 15: Catholic Social Teaching.
Yuen, M. M. Y. (2020). Justice and Human Dignity in Catholic Social Teaching. In Solidarity
and Reciprocity with Migrants in Asia (pp. 37-59). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.