Nurses’ Experiences of Spiritual Communication with Seriously Ill Children (S716)

Abstract

•Understand the spiritual communication needs of seriously ill children.•Describe at least one topic of spiritual communication with ill children.•Describe at least one communication strategy for communication with ill children. Spiritual care is essential in pediatric palliative care and nurses have been identified as the key team member with whom parents and children most often communicate. Yet, spiritual communication remains one of the most difficult areas of communication for nurses. The purpose of this presentation is to describe spiritual communication with seriously-ill children to inform communication training in pediatric palliative care. Researchers developed a brief survey to prompt nurses to reflect on pediatric palliative care experiences that included spiritual discussions. Stories were collected from nurses attending End-of-Life Nursing Education (ELNEC) courses. Qualitative responses were transcribed and inductively analyzed using an iterative process of theme analysis. Nurses’ spiritual conversations with children revealed that children question God and the reason for their illness, have a desire to talk about the afterlife as a way of understanding their limited lifespan, and to share descriptions of an afterlife, in these cases described as heaven. Nurses conveyed the importance of being present and engaging in spiritual communication with children. Nurses believed that ill children had spiritual needs and that it was important to nourish the child’s spirit by being with them and acknowledging their experiences. Nurses also emphasized being present for and with the children and their families and available to pray with them. Finally, nurses highlighted that they themselves had to be spiritually available. This presentation will emphasize the importance of being present and engaging in spiritual communication with children.