Digital Spiritual Care

BackgroundSpiritual care is essential to nursing practice, contributing to holistic patient care. However, the relationship between nurses’ perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care with their engagement in spiritual care practices remains underexplored, particularly in Indonesia. Understanding this relationship is crucial for enhancing the quality of care provided to patients.ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the correlation between nurses’ perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care with their spiritual care practices in Indonesia.MethodsA cross-sectional survey design was employed, involving a total of 300 nurses working in healthcare facilities across Indonesia. Data were collected via an online survey conducted from March to May 2024, using validated questionnaires: the Indonesian adaptation of the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS) and the Nurse Spiritual Care Therapeutic Scale (NSCTS). Spearman Rank Correlation was used to assess the relationship between nurses’ perceptions of spirituality and their engagement in spiritual care practices.ResultsThe study found that nurses held a positive perception of spirituality, with a mean score of 3.85 (SD = 0.41) regarding statements related to spirituality and spiritual care. However, they reported providing spiritual care only occasionally, with an average frequency of 3-6 times over a 72 to 80-hour work period. There was a significant positive correlation (r = 0.235, p <0.001) of nurses’ perception of spirituality and spiritual care with their engagement in spiritual care practices.ConclusionThe study highlights the need for targeted education and training to enhance nurses’ competencies in spiritual care practices. Addressing spiritual needs is vital for holistic patient care, and improving nurses’ perceptions and practices in this area can significantly benefit patient well-being.

Objective: The present study was conducted to determine the effect of nurses' perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care on patient care during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic process. Material and Methods: The research is in the type of a cross-sectional study, and nurses working in COVID-19 clinics in a city hospital in Türkiye between the dates of July and August 2021, who agreed to participate in the study online, were included in the study. As data collection tools in the study, a personal information form containing the demographic characteristics of the participants and The Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale were used. Results: 63.0% of the nurses who knew spiritual care applied it to their patients, 58.8% of the nurses who could not practice spiritual care for their patients stated that this issue was due to the lack of healthcare professionals, 94.6% of the nurses protected themselves during the pandemic can apply spiritual care, 87.0% stated that training on spirituality and spiritual care practices was important. A statistically significant correlation was found between the nurses' status of applying the spiritual care practices and the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale's total score average, the spiritual care subscale's and the personalized care subscale's mean scores, and the mean score of the nurses who practiced spiritual care for their patients was found to be high (p<0.05). Conclusion: Eliminating the knowledge needs of nurses about spirituality and spiritual care practices and solving the problems that prevent the practice can help increase the level of patient care.

Editorial: Critical reflections on the current state of spirituality‐in‐nursing

The relationship between psychiatric nurses' spiritual care practices, perceptions and their competency

Although current research findings reflect that spiritual care is integral to the discipline of nursing, implementation of spiritual care still remains a neglected area of practice. The purpose of this pretest-posttest study was to determine whether a spiritual care educational workshop would increase nurses' knowledge, self-awareness, and abilities regarding spiritual care practices. The Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS) was used to measure the nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about spirituality and spiritual care practices. Forty-nine nurses working at a satellite hospital within the midwestern United States attended the educational workshop. A statistically significant increase in nurses' knowledge, self-awareness, and abilities regarding spiritual care practices was observed after the educational workshop. The majority of nurses reported that their nursing education inadequately prepared them to provide spiritual care to their patients, and they were unable to meet the spiritual needs of their patients. Findings support the need for continued education regarding spiritual care practices among working nurses. J Contin Educ Nurs. 2017;48(3):115-122.

BackgroundUnani Tibb is an Arabic term which means Greek medicine. It is an ancient holistic medical system based on the healing theories of Hippocrates, Galen and Ibn Sina (Avicenna). Despite this, spirituality and spiritual care practices are deficient in the clinical setting.MethodsThis cross-sectional descriptive study was used to describe Unani Tibb practitioners’ perceptions and attitudes regarding spirituality and spiritual care in South Africa. A demographic form, Spiritual Care-Giving Scale, Spiritual and Spiritual Care Rating Scale and Spirituality in Unani Tibb Scale were used to collect data.ResultsA response rate of 64.7% (n = 44 out of 68) was achieved. Positive perceptions and attitudes regarding spirituality and spiritual care were recorded for Unani Tibb practitioners. The spiritual needs of their patients were considered vital towards enhancing the Unani Tibb treatment approach. Spirituality and spiritual care were regarded as fundamental to Unani Tibb therapy. However, most practitioners agreed that adequate training in spirituality and spiritual care was lacking and future training initiatives were imperative for Unani Tibb clinical practice in South Africa.ConclusionThe findings of this study recommends further research in this field by means of qualitative and mixed methods approaches to provide a deeper understanding to this phenomenon. Clear guidelines on spirituality and spiritual care for Unani Tibb clinical practice are essential to ensure the integrity of the holistic approach required by the profession.

Objective: Spiritual care is an integral part of the nursing profession, but it is not typically considered a nursing task. This study examined the Nurses' knowledge, perceptions, and practices regarding spiritual care in Osun State's secondary health care facilities.Methods: It involved descriptive cross-sectional design. Using stratified random sampling techniques, 178 respondents from secondary health care facilities in Osun State were selected at random. Utilizing a pre-tested questionnaire, data were collected and analysed using descriptive statistics. To test the hypotheses, Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) (p0.05) was utilised.Results: The majority of respondents (69.4%) had inadequate knowledge of spiritual care, while 51.8% have a positive perception. Few (18.8%) applied spiritual care during practice. A significant and positive relationship existed between spiritual care knowledge and practice (r=.498; df= 168; p = 0.01); a positive relationship was also observed between spiritual care perception and practice (r=.552; df= 168; p= 0.00).Conclusion: The respondents' inadequate understanding of spiritual care is reflected in their perceptions and practices. Recommendation: improve spiritual nursing care education and continuously update the spiritual care knowledge of practicing nurses.

The aim of this research was to determine Turkish nursing students’ knowledge, practices and perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care and to investigate the relationship between their perceptions and their demographics. This study was a descriptive survey conducted at a nursing school providing degree-level education in the city of Manisa, in the western part of Turkey. The sample of the study consisted of the 400 nursing students. A nursing student sociodemographic form, a form on nursing students’ knowledge and practices of spirituality and spiritual care, and the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale were used to collect the data. Half of the students could meet patients’ or individuals’ spiritual needs, and the spiritual care that they gave was most frequently listening, empathy, and psychological support. The research findings were that nursing students’ perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care were “sufficiently” although not “very sufficiently” defined. Being female, being in the second year of education and seeing spiritual care education as necessary were determinants of their perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care.

The present study aimed to explore the perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care among nurses who work in three different countries with different cultures as well as the factors influencing their perception. This is a cross-sectional multicultural study conducted with a total of 1090 nurses from Türkiye, Albania, and Italy. Data were collected through the "Individual Information Form" and the "Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale". Nurses' mean score on the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale was above average. It was also found that country, marital status, religious belief, Islamic religion, training for spiritual care, and using spiritual practices to cope with difficulties or illnesses influenced nurses' perception of spirituality and spiritual care. It was concluded that nurses from the three countries associated spirituality and spiritual care with religion and that some personal characteristics influenced their perceptions of spiritual care. The results highlight the need for training in spiritual care to improve nurses' perceptions and practices of spiritual care.

This cross-sectional study aimed to explore Turkish midwifery students' perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care and to investigate the factors affecting them. Data were collected from 271 students of the Midwifery Department of the High School of Health of a state university in the west of Turkey using the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale. A significant difference was found between belief in the need for spiritual care and the practice of spiritual care during midwifery training and the total score on the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale, but no significant difference was found between the students' year of class, whether they had heard about spiritual care, and their state of knowledge concerning spiritual care. An increase in awareness, knowledge and skills relating to spirituality and spiritual care on the part of midwifery students, who are the midwives of the future, will allow students to provide spiritual care to their patients after they qualify. For this reason, the education program of midwifery students should be seen from a holistic standpoint in order to develop spiritual care.

Spiritual care is a vital aspect of holistic nursing, especially in critical care environments such as high care units (HCUs). While nurses' knowledge and attitudes are thought to influence the delivery of spiritual care, there is limited evidence in HCU settings. This study aimed to explore the relationship between nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and their implementation of spiritual care in HCUs. A cross-sectional correlational design was employed, involving 30 nurses working in hospitals in Padang City. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire that assessed nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and spiritual care practices. The Nurse Spiritual Care Therapeutics Scale (NSCTS) was utilized to measure the frequency of spiritual care practices. Descriptive statistics and chi-squared tests were applied for data analysis, with statistical significance set at p &lt; 0.05. Results showed that 53.3% of nurses had good knowledge, 70.0% had positive attitudes, and 60.0% reported providing good spiritual care practices. Chi-square analysis revealed significant associations between knowledge and spiritual care practice (p = 0.031) and attitude and spiritual care practice (p = 0.012). These findings emphasize the importance of enhancing nurses' knowledge and attitudes toward spiritual care through targeted training, supportive policies, and the integration of spiritual care competencies into nursing curricula.

Background: Nurses' spiritual care practices have been shown to affect patients' well-being, therefore understanding nurses' spiritual care perceptions and their practices.Aim: The aim of this paper is to investigate the nurses’ views to practising spiritual care.Methods: A descriptive survey of 193 nurses was conducted at a general hospital in Turkey. Data was collected using a demographic questionnaire and The Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS).Findings: The findings of this study revealed that older nurses (p<.05); married (p<.001); higher levels of education (p<.05); work experience (p<.05); worked longer hours (p<.05); received education in spiritual care (p<.001); working in medical departments (p<.05) all tended to score higher on the SSCRS.Conclusion: Our research findings suggest that there is a lack of knowledge and general confusion regarding Turkish nurses perceptions and practices related to spiritual care.

The purpose of this study is to determine the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Spiritual Care Perceptions and Practices Scale and to evaluate factors that may be effective in providing spiritual care by general intensive care unit (ICU) nurses. Spiritual needs are necessary to offset spiritual deficiencies or support moral strength. During hospitalization, patients with critical conditions and their families tend to become anxious because of fear of the unknown and an uncertain future. Spiritual issues become prominent concerns for these patients and their families. The data of the study were collected from a university hospital, two public hospitals and two private hospitals. A total of 170 nurses were in the ICU of these hospitals, and 123 nurses (79·4%), agreed to participate and, were included in this study. Prior to the study, an information sheet was provided to all nurses to explain the purpose and procedures of the survey. The demographic data form of ICU nurses and the Nurses' Spiritual Care Perceptions and Practices Scale were used for data collection. A statistically significant difference was found between the marital status of the nurses and the total scale mean score. It was also determined that ICU nurses are in a better position regarding their perception levels of spiritual care compared to their practice levels of spiritual care, and nurses with a higher perception of spiritual care also have higher scores in the practice of spiritual care. ICU nurses were found to be inadequate in spiritual care practices. Study findings may be used to improve the support of nurses, to ensure sensitive spiritual care in their daily practices. ICU nurses should be aware of the importance of spiritual care and develop tools for assessing the spiritual needs of patients.

Nurses' perceptions and competencies about spirituality and spiritual care: A systematic review and meta-analysis

In recent times, when criticism is levelled at nursing for accepting spirituality unchallenged, Chan’s (2009) paper is timely as it appears to address these concerns, adding to the research on nursing and spiritual care. Having explored existing studies on nurses’ personal characteristics and their association with spiritual care, Chan’s research offers some interesting findings on nurses’ attitudes to practising spiritual care. Chan (2009) concludes that the results are indicative that current spiritual care practices where the study took place were positively correlated with spiritual care perceptions. Chan’s (2009) study found a significant association between the demographic variables and the spiritual care practice scores. In line with the finding of Cavendish et al.’s (2004) study, married people attained higher scores than singles on the spiritual care scales. The implications of Chan’s findings are that spirituality should be prominent in nurse education as an integral feature of holistic care. If nurse education promotes student engagement with spirituality, including the debates about the nature of spirituality and its significance to patients as they face critical junctures in their lives (Narayanasamy 2002), it then makes sense to assume that nurses are likely to transfer this acquired knowledge to practice. Poignantly, Chan (2009) acknowledges the debate and tensions surrounding spirituality, including the lack of consensus about what spirituality really means and in doing so makes a striking comment that spirituality refers to ‘a family of different, yet connected meanings’ in terms of meaning making in one’s life (Chan 2009, p. 2129). This resonates with several perspectives, including one where ‘spirituality is the essence of our being and one that gives us meaning and purpose to our very existence’ (Narayanasamy 2010, p. 37). In this regard, if nurses are dismissive of spirituality as patients’ lived experience, especially when they are facing critical junctures in their lives, then they are neglecting an important dimension of humanity and hence leave a person in a state of dispiritedness or brokenness. Attention to the body, mind and spirit is likely to restore the holistic nature of the person. Despite mounting evidence that spirituality is integral to health, some fail to acknowledge the ontology of spirituality as a human experience and that spirituality is the only lifeline for some when everything fails, including medicine and its perceived power to heal. However, protagonists of spirituality in nursing draw attention to the importance of spirituality in the light of empirical evidence from studies based on patients and nurses. While it is unequivocal that spirituality is important to people’s lives, it is less clear whether it is the nurse’s sole responsibility to address all aspects of spirituality in practice. Given the concerns in the literature about nurses’ knowledge and competence in spiritual care, this is possible because of the impoverished nurse education in this area. In this regard, although Chan’s (2009) paper strongly suggests the potential of nurse education in addressing nurses’ professional development in spirituality and spiritual care, it is doubtful whether nurses should be given the task of dealing with spirituality in practice. In line with numerous studies, Chan’s (2009) study requires nurse educators to know the ‘why’ about spirituality, but they need to consider how best to ensure that spirituality is embedded in the nursing curriculum. To achieve this, we need to consider ‘what’ and ‘how’ in the teaching of spirituality for nursing. As acknowledged by Chan (2009), the lack of consensus about what constitutes spirituality