Promoting Spiritual Nursing Care in an Intensive Care Unit: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Most of the patients in intensive care units (ICU) are intubated. These conditions can affect the psychological, social and spirituality condition of the patients. The nurse’s role in terms of providing spiritual care is still not optimal. Many feel the urge to reach out to their patients and offer spiritual support, but they do not know how to do it. However, the procedure or intervention needed for providing spiritual care is still little known about. This study aimed to explain the nursing interventions that could be applied for promoting spiritual care based on the existing literature. The systematic review was guided by the PRISMA protocol. A comprehensive search was carried out on a selection of databases; PubMed (Medline), CINAHL, Scopus, Springerlink, ProQuest, EBSCOHost, Web of Science Clarivate Analytic and Science Direct. The searching of published studies was done comprehensively using several keywords: “spiritual nursing care” OR “spiritual care in ICU” OR “spiritual intervention” OR “spiritual AND nurse” OR “spiritual AND critically ill patients” OR “implement spiritual intervention”. The searches were limited to publications in English with the year of publication being from 2009 up to February 2019. Ten studies were included in the review. This review confirmed some of the ways to promote spiritual nursing care in the ICU. Nurses, in promoting spiritual nursing, need the ability to communicate effectively and also to collaborate with the patient’s family and/or chaplain. It is hoped that this review could be a reference for nurses to allow them to provide spiritual nursing care in the ICU. Keywords: nursing, spiritual care, intensive care unit