Relationship between Spiritual Care Competence, Perceived Professional Benefit, and Retention Intention among Intern Nursing Students: A Correlational Study

Abstract

Aims. We aimed to investigate nursing students’ spiritual care competence, perceived professional benefit, and retention intention and to analyze the relationship among these variables. Background. Nurse shortages are a global issue, and intern nursing students’ willingness to remain in the nursing profession is important. Spiritual care can reduce patients’ depression and improve their quality of life. Implementing spiritual care can help individuals have satisfying experiences. Perceived professional benefit is a positive emotional experience that is important in retention intention. However, the relationship among spiritual care competence, perceived professional benefit, and retention intention remains unclear. Methods. In this cross-sectional and correlational study, convenience sampling was used to recruit 266 intern nursing students in 10 hospitals throughout China. An online questionnaire was used to assess their sociodemographic characteristics, spiritual care competence, perceived professional benefit, and retention intention. Statistical analyses included the t-test, analysis of variance, Pearson’s correlation analysis, and bootstrap analysis. Results. Intern nursing students’ mean scores were 103.35 ± 19.00 for spiritual care competence, 72.88 ± 10.40 for perceived professional benefit, and 19.58 ± 3.37 for retention intention. Spiritual care competence was positively correlated with perceived professional benefit (r = 0.545; p<0.01) and retention intention (r = 0.149; p<0.05). Perceived professional benefit was also positively correlated with retention intention (r = 0.320; p<0.01). Bootstrap analysis showed that perceived professional benefit completely mediates the relationship between spiritual care competence and retention intention. Conclusions. We found that nursing interns had a moderate level of retention intention, and perceived professional benefit was the mediating variable between spiritual care competence and retention intention. Implications. Our study results suggest that nursing administrators and educators should improve nursing interns’ spiritual care competence and perceived professional benefit to enhance their willingness to remain in the nursing profession and alleviate nurse shortages.