The student nurses' perception of the spiritual dimension in their nursing care.

Abstract

This descriptive research study focused on the student nurses' perception of their current nursing practice regarding spiritual care; their perceived ability in giving that care, their perception of the amount of time allotted for education in spiritual care; and their perception of their attitude towards the provision of spiritual care.

The Literature review analyses the theoretical framework of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1948) which is oriented towards the acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes required by the nurse to deliver spiritual care. Since spirituality is highly subjective, the literature was backed up by a description of the theological and philosophical perspectives. Research suggests that the spiritual dimension in nursing care is defined as 'being' as 'opposed' to doing (Simsen 1985, Ross 1997).

This research was quantitative in design. A self-administered questionnaire adapted from Piles' (1990) was used to collect the data. Two consecutive groups of final students at Diploma level participated in the study, a total of 84 students. The students were divided into five subgroups: two groups in general nursing, two groups in psychiatric nursing and one in Midwifery. The response rate was 84%. The findings are presented as descriptive statistics with some inferential statistics in an attempt to compare the responses of both groups of students. The findings in this study indicated that although in some areas, the majority of students perceived that they have been given little or no specific education on spiritual care. However, the students perceived themselves as currently providing spiritual care through the use of psychosocial skills.

Additionally, it was found that in those areas which focused on religious needs rather than spiritual, the students seem to 'seldom' or 'never' gave spiritual care. The majority of the students appear to have a positive attitude towards the delivery of spiritual care as they are willing to participate in this care and to include spiritual care in the nursing education. Finally, while acknowledging the limitations of the study, such as the use of convenience sample and lack of qualitative data, the findings of this study tentatively suggest the need to integrate educational sessions on spiritual care, supported by role models in the clinical field. Further research is suggested to answer the research questions generated by this study.