Effect of spiritual care training on nurses' perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care

Abstract

Spirituality and spiritual care are essential components of health in meeting patient needs holistically. The fulfillment of spiritual needs can be a source of support and strength for patients to face their illnesses. Positive spirituality will have an impact on improving health, disease prevention, and patients’ quality of life. This study aimed to determine the effect of spiritual care training on nurses’ perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care. This was a pre-experimental study without a control group conducted on 124 nurses who were working at Udayana University Hospital. The study data were collected using the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale Questionnaire (SSCRS). The training was conducted through lecture and group discussion with a duration of 120 minutes for each session. The data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon test with a 95% confidence level (a=0.05). The results showed that there was a significant difference in the perception scores of nurses' spiritual care before and after the training (p=0.006). This illustrates that spiritual care training is effective in increasing the perception of spirituality and spiritual care of nurses in providing health care for patients.