Impacts of extrinsic and intrinsic factors on psychiatric nurses’ spiritual care attitudes

Abstract

Accessible Summary What is known on the subject? Because the definition of spirituality is complex and has cultural and individual dimensions, it is important to be receptive to individual differences in the perception of spirituality during clinical practice of mental health nurses. Although enhancing spiritual care is beneficial to patients diagnosed with mental illnesses, the extrinsic (e.g., education) and intrinsic factors that would affect nurses' attitudes towards spiritual care have not been investigated. Notwithstanding the known impact of certain intrinsic factors (e.g., personality‐related) of mental health nurses on their coping strategies as well as their emotional and mental health, the link to their spiritual care attitudes has received little attention. What this paper adds to existing knowledge? This paper is the first to identify the beneficial impacts of extrinsic factors including postgraduate education, working experience, participation in palliative care education programmes, and spiritual care experience on spiritual care attitudes among mental health nurses. Certain intrinsic factors, including those personality‐related such as “Extraversion,” “Openness/Intellect,” “Conscientiousness,” and “Agreeableness,” were also associated with higher awareness of providing spiritual care among mental health nurses. What are the implications for practice? The finding of an association of certain intrinsic factors with more positive attitudes towards spiritual care could encourage further studies to explore possible links between these factors and attitudes of spiritual care. Those less aware of the patients' spiritual needs may benefit through participating in relevant education and on‐the‐job training programmes that involves actual practice and collaboration in a multidisciplinary team. Abstract IntroductionAlthough enhancing spiritual care can facilitate the communication of mental health nurses with patients diagnosed with mental illnesses, extrinsic and intrinsic factors that may influence their spiritual care attitudes remain unclear. AimTo conduct a questionnaire‐based survey on mental health nurses from eight hospitals. MethodA total of 239 psychiatric nurses were assessed based on (1) “big‐five Mini‐Markers” questionnaire and (2) spiritual care attitudes scale on three components (i.e., core values, growth, and nursing) to investigate the associations of spiritual care attitudes with social/occupational characteristics and personality. ResultsA positive attitude was significantly associated with working experience, higher educational level, previous participation in palliative care education programmes, spiritual care experience, and personality factors including “Extraversion,” “Openness/Intellect,” “Conscientiousness,” and “Agreeableness.” DiscussionDespite demonstrating impacts of intrinsic factors (e.g., personality) on mental health nurses' spiritual care attitudes, other modifiable extrinsic factors (e.g., education) were important in enhancing their awareness towards spiritu...

Influence of Gender on the Level of Social Emotional Intelligence

“…Of course, the main studies have previously looked at clinic patients or representatives of various professions, without considering the gender issue (Chou et al, 2017;Cormack et al, 2000;Moore & George, 2011). For example, some internal social intelligence factors associated with personality -Extraversion, Openness/Intelligence, Consciousness, and Pleasantness -are associated with a higher awareness of the need for spiritual care among mental health nurses (Han et al, 2022).…”

A Mixed-Method Study on the Assessment of Factors Influencing Nurses’ Provision of Spiritual Care

“…Regarding demographic variables, except prior hospitalization experience, there has been no significant correlation observed between competence to provide spiritual care and other factors including age, sex, marital status, and work experience [11]. In addition, a recent cross-sectional study that explored the factors influencing the attitudes of mental health nurses toward spiritual care highlighted both extrinsic factors, such as postgraduate education, working experience, participation in palliative care education programs, and spiritual care experience, as well as intrinsic factors like personality traits (e.g., Extraversion, Openness/Intellect, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness), which were associated with greater awareness and inclination toward providing spiritual care [12].…”

The attitudes of nonpsychiatric nurses towards mental disorders in China

“…Previous studies explored the attitudes of psychiatric nurses towards mental disorders and found that the attitudes of psychiatric nurses to patients with mental disorders were basically as negative as those of the general population, but were significantly more negative and stereotypical than those of other mental health professionals, such as psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers ( 14 – 16 ). In addition, a cross-sectional study noted that psychiatric nurses’ attitudes towards mental disorders were significantly associated with their clinical experience in mental health services, i.e., the more clinical experience they had, the more positive their attitudes towards mental disorders were ( 17 ). The results of these studies suggested that attitudes towards mental disorders might be related to the contents and forms of psychiatric education.…”