Table 2 The main themes and sub-themes extracted from the data

Physical outcomes

Critical threat to patients

Weakening patients’ safety

Psychological outcomes

Psycho-emotional responses of patients and their families

Moral distress of nurses

Cautionary tale

Financial outcomes

Imposing costs on the patient

The financial loss of the nurse

Organizational outcomes

The normalization of misconduct

Chaos in the organization

Waste of the organization’s resources

Reputational damage to the organization