Health professionals’ attitudes toward religiosity and spirituality: a NERSH Data Pool based on 23 surveys from six continents

Abstract

Background In order to facilitate better international and cross-cultural comparisons of health professionals (HPs) attitudes towards Religiosity and/or Spirituality (R/S) we updated the NERSH Data Pool. Methods We performed both a network search, a citation search and systematic literature searches to find new surveys. Results We found six new surveys (N=1,068), and the complete data pool ended up comprising 7,323 observations, including 4,070 females and 3,253 males. Most physicians (83%, N=3,700) believed that R/S had “some” influence on their patients’ health (CI95%) (81.8%–84.2%). Similarly, nurses (94%, N=1,020) shared such a belief (92.5%–95.5%). Across all samples 649 (16%; 14.9%–17.1%) physicians reported to have undergone formal R/S-training, compared with nurses where this was 264 (23%; 20.6%–25.4%). Conclusions Preliminary analysis indicates that HPs believe R/S to be important for patient health but lack formal R/S-training. Findings are discussed. We find the data pool suitable as a base for future cross-cultural comparisons using individual participant data meta-analysis.

Physicians’ religious/spiritual characteristics and their behavior regarding religiosity and spirituality in clinical practice

“…In 2020 we renewed the searches, applying the same strategy and search strings [18] . In total 6 new surveys were eligible to import into the NERSH Data Pool.…”

“…The third version of the NERSH Data Pool used in this meta-analysis comprised a total of 7323 health professionals of which 4872 were physicians. The data pool has been described in detail in another publication, [18] and its codebook is available for download through the Open Science Framework [19]…”

“…We used the NERSH Data Pool v3.0 as data source [18,19] . Members of the international Network for Research in Spirituality and Health (NERSH) have shared ideas and data since 2003.…”

“…We used the NERSH Data Pool v3.0 as data source. [18,19] Members of the international Network for Research in Spirituality and Health (NERSH) have shared ideas and data since 2003. The original questionnaire used was the Religion and Spirituality in Medicine: Physicians' Perspectives (RSMPP) by Curlin, which was used in a nation-wide survey of American physicians in 2005.…”

“…In 2020 we renewed the searches, applying the same strategy and search strings. [18] In total 6 new surveys were eligible to import into the NERSH Data Pool. Two from the network search and 4 from the citation search in Web of Science.…”