title: The development of nursing students' spirituality and spiritual care-giving.
abstract: Nursing education programs are being increasingly challenged to incorporate spirituality and spiritual care-giving into the curriculum. The purposes of this study were to explore how students in a baccalaureate curriculum perceived their spirituality and spiritual health, and their perceptions of spiritual nursing care. Students in the first and fourth years of the program filled out a survey that included a spiritual well-being scale and several open-ended questions. Overall, students had a strong awareness of personal spirituality and a high level of spiritual health. They identified a number of behaviours and characteristics of the nurse that facilitated spiritual nursing care. Fourth year students demonstrated a more patient-centered approach to spiritual care. They placed less emphasis on the nurse's agenda and qualities and more on supporting the patient's beliefs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Trinity Western University, 7600 Glover Road, Langley, BC, V2Y 1Y1, Canada. pesut@twu.ca
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pesut
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003479:Curriculum; D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D029181:Spirituality; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires