title: Concordance between nurses' perception of their ability to provide spiritual care and the identified spiritual needs of hospitalized patients: A cross-sectional observational study.
abstract: Spiritual care is essential to the well-being of patients, and nurses provide spiritual care as a fundamental part of nursing practice. In this study, we investigated the spiritual care needs of hospitalized patients to determine whether the perceived knowledge of nurses corresponded with these spiritual care needs. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 1351 hospitalized patients and 200 registered nurses recruited from a medical center in central Taiwan. A questionnaire, including the 21-item Spiritual Care Needs Inventory (patient and nurse version) and basic demographic information, was distributed to eligible participants. The top three items of the spiritual care needs expressed by the hospitalized patients were respect for privacy and dignity, showing concern, and guidance in gaining a sense of hope in life; the percentages of nurses not knowing how to provide these spiritual care needs were 0%, 1%, and 15%, respectively. The spiritual care needs of patients showed a significant relationship with the knowledge of nurses, suggesting that the perceived knowledge of the nurses generally corresponded with the spiritual care items that the patients required most.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, National Taichung University of Science and Technology, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Li-Fen
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Research, Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Dalin, Taiwan.|Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Malcolm
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koo
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.
authors.forename: Hui-Chen
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Tseng
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu-Chen
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yuh-Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010465:Perception; D026443:Spiritual Therapies / Q000451:nursing*; D029181:Spirituality; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Taiwan; hospitalized patient; knowledge; nurse; spiritual care