Spiritual Care Need: The Pediatric Nurses’ Perspective

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Nurses as health professionals have to provide holistic nursing care that is a bio-psycho-socio-cultural and spiritual aspect. If the spiritual aspects are not met, it will impact the patient’s healing process. It requires the role of nurses to meet the spiritual needs of patients. AIM: This study aims to determine a spiritual care need based on pediatric nurses’ perspective. METHODS: This study used a qualitative method of phenomenology. Participants in this study were all seven nurses working in the pediatric inpatient ward of three private hospitals in Yogyakarta. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. RESULTS: The study showed that the meaning of spiritual care need was the need related to pediatric religion and psychology. Nurses can perform spiritual care needs to patients independently or collaborate with the spiritual counselor. Nurses fulfilled patients’ spiritual care needs to remind daily prayer, pray for patients, and remind them of prayer before taking medicine or other occasions. CONCLUSION: Spiritual care needs can be fulfilled by nurses independently or through collaboration with a spiritual counselor.