Nursing Students’ Spiritual Care: Implications to Related Learning Experience (RLE)

Abstract

The integration of spiritual care into the education of nursing students is paramount for fostering holistic and patient-centered healthcare. As the nursing profession evolves, there is a growing recognition of the interconnectedness of physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. However, traditional nursing curricula often inadequately address the spiritual dimension of care, potentially leaving nursing students ill-prepared to address the diverse and complex needs of their future patients. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the level of spiritual care practices and knowledge among nursing students in a private tertiary higher education institution during the new normal in one of the private colleges in Pampanga. This study establishes facts that are used to analyze nursing students’ level of spiritual care practices and knowledge. A descriptive design is applied specifically, the descriptive-evaluative and descriptive-comparative research designs in this study. Purposive sampling was utilized and included a total sample of 154 nursing students who have face-to-face classes and clinical duty, particularly levels II and III from one of the Colleges of Nursing in Pampanga, Philippines. This study will utilize a two-parted questionnaire. Part 1 involved the profile of the respondents as their age, gender, civil status, year level/religion. Part 2 will use an adopted standardized instrument, the Spiritual Tool Questionnaire contains (Robles, 2014) that a 64-item questionnaire that focuses around seven elements. The result of the study shows that there is no significant difference between institutional support. Thus, the null hypothesis is accepted. Additionally, the researchers propose that student nurses incorporate a transcultural approach in their patient interactions. This is essential for minimizing bias, building positive relationships, and fostering an environment where patients feel at ease expressing their emotions to student nurses. Furthermore, armed with verified facts and data, nursing institutions can formulate targeted strategies and interventions aimed at enhancing education in spiritual care. Consequently, this contributes to the progression of clinical competence among nursing students.