Carrying Hope; Pre-Registration Nursing Students’ Understanding and Awareness of Their Spiritual Needs from Their Experiences in Practice: A Grounded Theory Study

Wendy Wigley

doi:10.3390/rel8120272

Abstract

Spirituality is integral to health and wellbeing and a fundamental element of nursing care. Nonetheless, evidence suggests that spirituality is a frequently ignored aspect of nursing education and care. From 2008 to 2010 a Glaserian grounded theory design was used to explore and explain pre-registration nursing students’ personal understanding of their own spirituality and the relationship between experiences in clinical practice and spiritual awareness. While there is evidence that examines relevance of providing spiritual care to service users, at that time, minimal research has been undertaken to examine spiritual needs in pre-registration nursing students. A theory of carrying hope emerged from the findings to explain how pre-registration nursing students resolve clinical experiences with spiritual awareness. The findings identified that pre-registration nursing students’ awareness of spirituality can be explained in three main Basic Social Processes (BSPs): struggling, safeguarding and seeking. This study highlights the extreme personal challenge pre-registration nursing students experience as a result of their experiences in clinical practice and the impact this has upon their spiritual awareness. Recommendations from this study include the implementation of a model of pastoral care for tutors to support spiritual needs of during transition from student to registration.

Highlights

For the purpose of the study spirituality is defined as ‘wider than religion, the inner ‘self’ that arouses feelings of love, faith, hope and trust that provide meaning, inner peace and purpose in life’; adapted from (Meyer 2003; Narayanasamy 2006)
Within the UK context of health care provision and service, meeting the varied spiritual needs of patients, staff and visitors is fundamental to the care the National Health Service (NHS) provides (NHS Scotland 2009; NHS England 2015)
While Florence Nightingale has been credited for associating nursing care with Christianity (Alligood and Tomey 2009); contemporary literature argues that spirituality within nursing is considered to be more than a religious concept (Carson 1989; McSherry 2010)

Summary

Introduction

For the purpose of the study spirituality is defined as ‘wider than religion, the inner ‘self’ that arouses feelings of love, faith, hope and trust that provide meaning, inner peace and purpose in life’; adapted from (Meyer 2003; Narayanasamy 2006). Standards for the education of pre-registration nursing students (Nursing and Midwifery Council NMC (2010)) recognise spirituality as a principle of person-centred care. The relationship between experiences in the clinical environment and personal spirituality, is recognised as being poorly understood (Ross 2006), given that incidents can expose student nurses to the unpredictable and unexpected nature of clinical practice (Morrissette 2004). Whether spirituality exists or not, and the constituents or presentation of spirituality, has evaded the experts in nursing and health care This uncertainty has led to a variety definitions of spirituality (Carson 1989; Narayanasamy 1993) and resulted in ambiguity associated with education of nurses in spiritual care (McSherry 2000)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion