This study explored the influence of healthcare ageism on nurses’ moral distress. Episodic interviews were conducted on 25 Romanian nurses in 2020. Thematic analysis revealed that all moral distress sources reported reflected macro-, meso- and micro-level ageism, benevolent and hostile, self- or other-directed, including stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination of older patients. The COVID-19 pandemic-related ageist measures increased healthcare ageism and transformed nurses’ representations of older patients accordingly. Nurses felt moral conflict both when passively witnessing ageist acts and when perpetrating them (...) to adhere to group norms, highlighting the need to combat ageism for both patients’ and nurses’ well-being. (shrink)

This study aimed to investigate the relationships between medical professionals’ empathy and two moral coordinates, moral foundations and moral identity. A sample of 157 physicians and nurses completed an adapted version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy, addressing three dimensions of empathy: compassionate care, perspective taking, and the cognitive dimension of empathy; the Moral Identity Questionnaire, addressing two facets of the importance of moral standards, Moral Self and Moral Integrity; and the Moral Foundations Questionnaire. We found specific patterns of associations (...) between the three dimensions of empathy, moral identity, and moral foundations. Moral self was a significant predictor of all the dimensions of empathy while moral integrity was also significantly related to compassionate care and purity to perspective taking. Health professionals with more than five years of work experience also emerged as lower in compassionate care. Their adherence to moral standards and the importance of moral values should be further enhanced in education as their moral identity can contribute to more empathic behaviors toward patients. (shrink)

The present study explored how Romanian women perceive in-vitro fertilization, surrogacy, and adoption as alternative pathways to traditional parenthood. Previous studies suggested that both...

The present study explored the relationship between attitudes toward transgender individuals and the judgments people make in transgression scenarios involving transgender and cisgender individuals of different ages in a sample of 184 Romanian students. We used a mixed-method approach and tested the effect of gender identity on participants' punishments in a hypothetical transgression. In hypothetical transgressions involving preadolescent transgender and cisgender agents, results suggested no differences in participants' theft punishments. However, adult cisgender transgressors received significantly harsher punishments compared to transgender (...) transgressors. Our qualitative analyses suggested that the most frequent categories of responses justifying the punishments confirmed the importance of the agent's age. Our findings suggested no significant associations between participants' gender and reported the previous contact with an LGBTQ member and the punishments they chose for child and adult transgressors. Results are discussed in light of their implication in the contemporary, highly LGBTQ intolerant Romanian context. (shrink)