Abstract
This paper addresses the importance of providing spiritual care for older people within the context of nursing. Based on the author’s doctoral thesis, the importance of love in relation to spirituality and spiritual care will be discussed herein. The methodology is based upon Gadamer’s hermeneutical philosophy, and the included material is one qualitative metasynthesis, interviews of 17 older people, a research synthesis of articles concerning connectedness and love, and a book by Paul Tillich. Love in connectedness was found as a universal force in spirituality, and different forms of love emerged in relation to spiritual needs in older people care. Furthermore, love as a re-unifying and connecting force may foster confirmation of human worth and dignity, enable serving others in reciprocate love, longing towards being part of something larger than oneself, and holiness in the sense of pursuing existential meaning or religiousness.
Highlights
Nursing care has a long tradition of embracing care for the whole human being, body, soul and spirit (Lindström et al 2010).Ever since I became a nurse, my main interest has been to care for older people
Love in connectedness was found as a universal force in spirituality, and different forms of love emerged in relation to spiritual needs in older people care
The doctoral thesis (Rykkje 2014) on which this paper is based consisted of three sub-studies: Sub-study I was a qualitative metasynthesis; Sub-study II was an interview study of older people; and Sub-study III was a theoretical paper about love and connectedness
Summary
Nursing care has a long tradition of embracing care for the whole human being, body, soul and spirit (Lindström et al 2010). I remember one patient who asked me to read for her a passage in the Bible. She said she often felt anxious about her life, wondering if she had lived it ‘well enough’, that is, according to what her Christian faith required. I wrote a nursing problem in the patient’s journal about additional spiritual needs and suggested that the appropriate nursing intervention was to read a minimum of once weekly with her from the Bible. Little attention was given to this particular problem in the nursing care plan. As I planned my doctoral work in caring science, I chose to focus upon spirituality and the care of older people’s spiritual needs. The starting point for the research (Rykkje 2014) was that aspects of human spirituality might form a foundation for fostering dignity in old age
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