What is it about?
Nurses around the world recognize that people have physical, mental, social, and spiritual aspects of who they are, and that when ill, the spiritual part of a person is affected. However, nurses often feel unprepared to care for patients spiritually. This study surveyed 172 nurses in an acute care hospital in Bergen, Norway asking them how comfortable they are asking patients questions of a spiritual nature. Findings showed that most nurses are fairly comfortable asking general questions about a patient's spiritual concerns, but not questions that are very specific about religious issues. What they feel most unprepared for is what to do if there are patients who have needs they do not know how to address.
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Why is it important?
Patient health is negatively impacted when the inner spirit needs are left unaddressed, and often spiritual resources are not utilized when they could help a patient. Nursing education, both in nursing school and in continuing education of working nurses, needs to train nurses to recognize cues and to discern when to provide presence, listening, acting in specific ways, and referring patients to spiritual leaders.
Perspectives
I believe nurses need to care for the whole person, and we leave a whole domain unaddressed when we do not ask patients, which can slow down their healing. Nurses need to learn to discern the healing path for their patients and to courageously address the needs that surface. In this fast-paced world where human connections are losing the personal touch due to an increasing technology, the most important thing for nurses to build rapport with patients through providing touch, being fully present with the patient, and listening actively.
Pamela Cone
Azusa Pacific University William V Marshburn Memorial Library
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Nurses’ comfort level with spiritual assessment: a study among nurses working in diverse healthcare settings, Journal of Clinical Nursing, April 2017, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/jocn.13660.
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