This literature review yields a competency profile that may help to structure future care, research and education in spiritual care by nurses. Implications of the work for future research and education are discussed.

Chronic cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are diseases with marked morbidity. Patients are often advised to change their lifestyle to prevent complications and impairment of their diseases. Compliance, however, is influenced by multiple factors. Initial studies show that spirituality is an important aspect in health behavior and lifestyle changing, but to health professionals like nurses this is unknown. The aim of this review is to investigate and synthesize evidence about the role of spirituality in lifestyle changing in patients with chronic CVD. A comprehensive search was conducted in electronic databases Academic Search Premier, E-journals, Medline and PubMed, published between the years 2000-2015. After selection based on pre-set inclusion criteria, studies were retrieved and evaluated on quality using the criteria of the QOREC. Twelve studies with a qualitative empirical design and mixed methods were included. This review shows that spirituality, is related to the self-management of patients with chronic diseases. For instance, lifestyle changes are experienced as a continuous inner battle. Religion gives strength, but is also experienced as a struggle. Feelings of guilt and becoming a victim influence patients' experience. For effectively advising patients with CVD on lifestyle changes, nurses cannot ignore this factor but further investigation is required.

Today, different cultures and contexts of nursing adhere to different codes of ethics. This pluralism may be traced back to differing beliefs about the nature of man and the world, involving different approaches to, and understandings of, spirituality. How significant is this pluralism of beliefs surrounding spirituality for proper nursing practice? I argue that certain introductory nursing textbooks perceive the significance of spirituality for nursing practice as marginal, because of certain assumptions as to what constitutes a proper, or professional, practice. After arguing that such assumptions are problematic, especially from an ethical point of view, I will advance an alternative understanding of professional practice, by drawing upon Alasdair MacIntyre's work. The aim is to give the spiritual dimension of nursing care its rightful place.

This may be helpful to recruit and prepare nurses for professional ethics in nursing care, and to develop a tool to assess to what extent nurses actually possess competence for ethics meetings.