The term moral distress, one of the problems encoun tered most frequently by nurses, describes the situations that arise fromsome constraints when a nurse feels that the correct action to take isdifferent from what he or she is tasked with doing. This study aims atdetermining the situations that lead to moral distress and factors thataffect them. This cross-sectional descriptive study was conductedthrough face-to-face interviews at two public hospitals and a univer sity hospital e in the Aydın between January and March 2018. The re search data were collected by using Personal Information Form andMoral Distress Scale for Nurses. Four hundred forty eight nurses work ing in the hospitals participated in this study. The total mean score ob tained from the Moral Distress Scale was 36.74+14.32, and the highestmean score obtained from the sub-scales was taken from the time sub dimension and the lowest score average from the possibilities sub-di mension. When the Moral Distress Scale mean scores are analyzedaccording to the demographic characteristics of the nurses; a statisticalsignificance was found in the sub-dimensions in terms of age and hos pital (p<0.05). In this study, the mean of moral distress of the nurseswas found to be moderate. The age of the nurses and the institutionwhere they work have a significant impact on their moral distress. Itwas concluded that nurses experienced the highest level of distress inthe moral distress sub-dimensions in the time sub-dimension.