Religion, world view and the nurse: results of a quantitative survey among Flemish palliative care nurses.
OBJECTIVE
To study the religious or ideological views and practices of palliative care nurses.


METHODS
An anonymous questionnaire was sent to all nurses (n=589) employed in palliative care in Flanders, Belgium. A total of 70.5% of the nurses (n=415) responded.


RESULTS
Four meaningful factors were found: the ideological dimension, the intellectual dimension, the ritualistic dimension, and the experiential dimension. Five religious or ideological clusters were found: atheists/agnostics (n=66, 18.3%), 'doubters' (n=64, 17.8%), church-going respondents (n=106, 29.4%), religious but not church-going respondents (n=64, 17.8%), and devout church-going respondents (n=60, 16.7%). Older nurses were more committed to the teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Many nurses take the freedom to compose their own religious or ideological identity.


CONCLUSIONS
A large majority of the nurses are interested in religious issues. Yet, their attitude toward religion and world view is noncommittal.
Gielen
Joris
J
Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Religion and World View, Catholic University, Leuven, Belguim. Joris.Gielen@theo.kuleuven.be
van den Branden
Stef
S
van Iersel
Trudie
T
Broeckaert
Bert
B
D000328:Adult; D001530:Belgium; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses; D010166:Palliative Care; D012067:Religion; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires