Enhancing the Ability of Nursing Students to Perform a Spiritual Assessment

Abstract

According to the literature, a majority of nurses and nursing students report a lack of comfort and ability to perform a spiritual assessment. The researchers designed and implemented an intervention program to address the 4 barriers most frequently identified as obstacles to performing a spiritual assessment. They discuss this study and suggest teaching interventions to assist nursing students to assess and implement spiritual care. Researcher-developed tools are presented and can be made available for use.

Spirituality in pre-registration nurse education and practice: A review of the literature

“…Although Tiew et al (2013) suggest that an understanding of spirituality and spiritual care did not necessarily influence practice, Hoffert et al, (2007) and Giske and Cone (2012) discovered that spirituality education enabled students to be more knowledgeable and comfortable performing spiritual assessments. In addition, Taylor et al, (1999) and Graham (2008) found that Students with a strong sense of personal spirituality felt comfortable and confident providing spiritual care.…”

“…Conclusions drawn from Hoffert et al (2007) are that spirituality is complex and perhaps intimidating, therefore, specific education and experience is required to build students' competence and confidence, a view supported by Greenstreet (1999) and Narayanasamy (1999). Furthermore, Baldacchino (2008a) suggests, a combination of knowledge and skills from a targeted course would embolden competence to deliver spiritual care.…”

“…So a pertinent study by Hoffert et al (2007), involving 38 1 st year students looked into enhancing their ability and comfort level to perform spiritual assessment. The method involved, a seminar covering spirituality, religiosity, assessing and providing spiritual care, also a spiritual assessment tool developed by the researchers.…”

An Investigation of the Perceptions and Practices of Nursing Students Regarding Spirituality and Spiritual Care

“…In a review of papers on perceptions toward spirituality and spiritual care published from 2000 to 2012, 138 articles were identified, but only nine studies involved preregistration nursing students. A critical examination of these studies identified descriptions of spirituality content in curricula [6,16,20] and the impact of specific spiritual education modules or teaching strategies on students' spiritual perspectives [5]. In a review of the literature by Lewinson et al, it was reported that nurses were aware of their lack of knowledge, understanding and skills in the area of spirituality and spiritual care, and desired to be better informed and skilled in this area.…”

“…It has been emphasized in studies in this country and abroad that a lack of education is an important factor among the reasons for nurses not meeting the spiritual needs of individuals [5,8,16,17]. Also, McSherry reported that the concept of spirituality and spiritual care in nursing remained theoretical in the fields of organization, management and practice, and that going beyond this is necessary [18].…”