An online survey to describe pharmacy student spirituality and spiritual care perspectives

Abstract

IntroductionLittle is known about student pharmacists' perspectives of spirituality and spiritual care (SC) in pharmacy education and practice. The purpose of this study was to examine student pharmacists' perspectives about spirituality and incorporating SC in pharmacy education and practice. MethodsStudent pharmacists were recruited from two private pharmacy schools in California, one religiously-affiliated and one non-religiously affiliated. A faculty member at each school invited student pharmacists via email or through Zoom (Zoom Video Communications) chat to complete the 37-item online survey through an embedded link. The investigator-designed survey was comprised of 22 items inquiring about spirituality and SC as well as several items assessing demographic and religious characteristics. ResultsParticipants included 470 student pharmacists (87.2% response rate) who were 28.9 ± 5.7 years old on average. Half of the respondents (50.5%) attended the non-religiously affiliated university. Most of the respondents were female (67%), Christian (67.8%), spiritual (79.2%), and religious (75.2%). They “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that: “understanding patients' spiritual beliefs is an important part of pharmacy practice” (83%), “I would pray with my patients as a pharmacist” (54.8%), “it is appropriate for a pharmacist to have spiritual or religious conversations with patients” (52.9%), and “it is appropriate for a pharmacist to pray with and for patients who request it” (66.9%). These beliefs were positively correlated with self-reported religiosity and spirituality. ConclusionsMost students considered themselves spiritual and religious and felt that spirituality and learning about SC were important. The respondents' SC perspectives were associated with their religiosity and spirituality.