Nurses' and midwives' acquisition of competency in spiritual care : a focus on education

Abstract

Background: The debate that spirituality is ‘caught’ in practice rather than ‘taught’ implies that spiritual awareness comes about through clinical experience and exposure, requiring no formal education and integration within the curricula. This is challenged as it seems that providing students with a ‘taught’ component equips students with tools to identify and strengthen resources in ‘catching’ the concept. Aim: This study forms part of a modified Delphi study, which aims to identify the predictive effect of pre- and post-registration ‘taught’ study units in spiritual care competency of qualified nurses/midwives. Methods: A purposive sample of 111 nurses and 101 midwives were eligible to participate in the study. Quantitative data were collected by the Spiritual Care Competency Scale (SCCS) (Van Leeuwen et al., 2008) [response rate: nurses (89%; n = 99) and midwives (74%; n = 75)]. Results: Overall nurses/midwives who had undertaken the study units on spiritual care scored higher in the competency of spiritual care. Although insignificant, nurses scored higher in the overall competency in spiritual care than the midwives. Conclusion: ‘Taught’ study units on spiritual care at pre- or post-registration nursing/midwifery education may contribute towards the acquisition of competency in spiritual care.