title: The efficacy of integrating spirituality into undergraduate nursing curricula.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Attention to patients' spirituality, as a moral obligation of care, is now widely accepted in nursing practice. However, until recently, many nursing programs have paid little attention to spirituality.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to identify the impact of two different curricula, used to teach undergraduate nursing students, on increasing nursing student awareness of spirituality in the care of patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A quasi-experimental post-intervention two-group design was conducted in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 academic years.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study included a total of 130 volunteer senior-year students. The students were assigned as "the intervention group/integrated system" that were informed about spirituality or as "the control group/traditional system" that received no information on spirituality. Data were collected via a personal information form and the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale was used to assess responses. The study was conducted at the Department of Nursing of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Cumhuriyet University, in Central Anatolia/Turkey.
  
  
  METHODS
  Permission to conduct the study at the nursing school was obtained from the schools' management teams. The rights of the participants were protected in this study by obtaining informed consent.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results revealed that the intervention group had a higher mean score on the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale than did the control group. The students in the intervention group defined the terms of spirituality and spiritual care more accurately than did the control group students.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nurses are professionally and ethically responsible for providing spiritual care. Nurses' competence in meeting the spiritual needs of their patients should be improved by undergraduate education on spiritual care. Nursing scholars reported a significant difference in the knowledge and attitudes toward spirituality of nursing students as a result of the integration of spirituality into the undergraduate nursing curriculum.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Spirituality should be more widely included in nursing education.
authors.affiliation: Cumhuriyet University, Turkey yilmazmm01@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Meryem
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yilmaz
authors.affiliation: Cumhuriyet University, Turkey.
authors.forename: Hesna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gurler
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D012579:Schools, Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D020377:Self Efficacy; D029181:Spirituality; D013338:Students, Nursing; D014421:Turkey
keywords: Nursing education; spiritual care; spirituality; teaching spirituality