Spirituality in illness and care. 'X'jaf min ma garrabx! Spiritual care : the views of patients, nurses, students and chaplains of Malta and Gozo

Abstract

It is a tremendous privilege and pleasure to have been asked to write the foreword for this book. I only hope that I can do it justice. As I think back a decade ago to the time when I was a doctoral student searching the spiritual care literature, I remember time and time again ordering papers from the library, the title of which sounded just what I was looking for. Then there came the notification from the library, often after several weeks of waiting, to say that the papers had finally arrived. I would rush down to collect them, believing that they would shed much needed light on my thesis. How disappointing to find that the vast majority were simply anecdotal with no research base or reference to a research base. At that time I located only a handful of research studies on spiritual aspects of care. All, but one, were unpublished, most were American, and all used very small sample sizes. A decade on, I am very pleased to say that the climate has changed. There has been a proliferation in the literature emerging on all aspects of spiritual care. Much of this literature is research based, the studies having been undertaken mainly in the UK (e.g. Harrison and Burnard 1993, Ross 1994 and 1997, McSherry 1997, Narayanasamy and Owen 2001) and North America (e.g. Reed 1986, Ellis 1999). Donia gave her contribution to spirituality in nursing by her Ph.D. thesis and other research. She has chosen to make her findings available to all by publishing this book. It has a valuable contribution to make on several fronts. First, it adds to the much needed research base for spiritual care. It is not anecdotal, but a thorough and rigorous piece of research at doctoral level. As such it contributes new knowledge to a worthy topic. Second, it is the first study based in Malta and addresses both health care service provider and user perceptions of spiritual care. It explores the impact of myocardial infarction on the patient experience. The spiritual distress that may be encountered as a result of this experience is addressed, as are coping strategies, such as religion and prayer, which were particularly important in this predominantly Roman Catholic culture. Third, it highlights gaps in current service provision in Malta. More importantly, it provides pointers as to what can be done to assist service providers to better meet their clients' spiritual needs. I hope the book is widely read by service users and providers alike. However, merely reading the book is insufficient. The findings must be acted upon if practice is to change so that service users' spiritual needs are better addressed. I hope that this happens. If used in this way, the book will have acted as a catalyst for change and will prove to be invaluable.