Student nurses' spiritual care competencies and attitudes in Brazil

Abstract

BackgroundSpiritual care is one of the basic human needs and is an essential attribute of holistic care and a pillar of nursing care. AimTo explore undergraduate nursing students' knowledge of spirituality and their competence, preparedness, and obstacles in providing spiritual care. MethodsThis study used a mixed method approach with a convergent parallel design to survey Brazilian nursing students' (n=106) competence, preparedness, and the obstacles in providing spiritual care utilizing the scale of spiritual care competency. ResultsThe findings indicate that students are moderately or poorly prepared to provide spiritual care. Most students (n=69, 65%) never performed spiritual care, although 82% consider this care to be part of a nurse's competence. Lack of knowledge was among the main obstacles to providing spiritual care and 97.2% of students would like to receive some education. Those students who practiced religion perceived themselves as being more competent in providing spiritual care (Z=0.044 p=0.044). ConclusionsThis study is innovative in Brazil and points to the need to include this topic in the nursing curricula.