Spirituality and spiritual caring: nurses' perspectives and practice in palliative and acute care environments.
OBJECTIVE
Identify and compare spiritual caring practice by palliative care and acute care registered nurses (RNs), determine any correlation between nurses' spiritual perspective and their spiritual caring, and to investigate perceived barriers to spiritual caring.


BACKGROUND
Over the past decade there has been growing interest in spiritual caring in nursing. Professional nursing bodies have proposed spirituality and spiritual caring as an integral component of holistic nursing.


METHODS
Cross sectional study.


METHODS
Palliative care RNs (n = 42) from one community palliative care service and three hospices, and acute care RNs (n = 50) from three major acute care hospitals all in metropolitan Sydney, Australia completed a research questionnaire. Two validated tools and a demographic survey were used to collect data. These tools measured spiritual perspectives including saliency of personal spirituality, spiritual views and engagement in spiritually-related activities; and spiritual practice including assessment, interventions and barriers to spiritual caring. Data were collected over a six-month period and interpreted with both descriptive and analytical statistics.


RESULTS
Significant differences were seen between the two RN groups. Palliative care RNs' spiritual caring practice was more advanced and their spiritual perspective stronger; this relationship was positive. Both RN groups identified 'insufficient time' as the most common barrier to spiritual caring practice; 'patient privacy' was also common for acute care RNs.


CONCLUSIONS
Palliative care RNs' spiritual perspectives influenced their spiritual caring. These nurses were older and more career-advanced than the acute care RNs, which may explain the differences observed. Acute care RNs may benefit from additional support for their spiritual caring and to address perceived barriers.


CONCLUSIONS
The development of nurses' spiritual perspective early in their preparation for practice, and the articulation and documentation of spiritual caring may enhance their spiritual caring practice. Further research on barriers to spiritual caring in acute care nursing environments is recommended.
Sydney Nursing School, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia. sue.ronaldson@sydney.edu.au
Susan
S
Ronaldson
Lillian
L
Hayes
Christina
C
Aggar
Jennifer
J
Green
Michele
M
Carey
D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D018939:Holistic Nursing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000523:psychology*; D010166:Palliative Care; D029181:Spirituality; D055815:Young Adult