Nurses' Spiritual Care Practices

Abstract

In Brief Research indicates that nurses do not consistently provide spiritual care, feel ill equipped to do so, and there is a lack of information as to the type of spiritual care practices nurses use. This exploratory descriptive study surveyed nurses (N = 123) about their spiritual care practices and perceptions of effectiveness, followed by qualitative interviews with volunteers (n = 5) from the surveyed group. The nurses favored spiritual interventions that are not overtly religious, but conveyed concern and support, such as listening and providing comforting touch. This study identified spiritual care (SC) practices nurses use, how effective they perceive SC practices to be, and if they felt comfortable and prepared to give SC..