Spiritual wellbeing, Attitude toward Spiritual Care and its Relationship with Spiritual Care Competence among Critical Care Nurses

Abstract

Introduction: Nurses’ spiritual wellbeing and their attitude toward spirituality and competence of nurses in providing of spiritual care can affect the quality of care in nursing. The aim of this study was to evaluate spiritual wellbeing, attitude toward spiritual care and its relationship with the spiritual care competence among nurses. Methods: This was a correlational descriptive study conducted on 109 nurses working in the Intensive Care Units of Imam Reza and Madani hospitals in 2015, Tabriz, Iran. Data collection tools were a demographic data form and three standard questionnaires including Spiritual Wellbeing Scale, Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale and Spiritual Care Competence Scale. Data were analyzed by SPSS ver.13. Results: The mean score of the spiritual wellbeing was 94.45 (14.84), the spiritual care perspective was 58.77 (8.67), and the spiritual care competence was 98.51 (15.44). The linear regression model showed 0.42 variance between the spiritual care competence scores which were explained by the two aspects of spiritual wellbeing (religious health, existential health) and three aspects of spiritual care perspective (spirituality, spiritual care, personalized care). The spiritual care competence had a positive relationship with spiritual wellbeing and spiritual care perspective. Conclusion: Because of the nature of nursing and importance of close interaction of nurses with patients in ICUs, the higher nurses’ SW and the more their positive attitude toward spiritual care, the more they can provide spiritual care to their patients.

Keywords: Spirituality, Attitude, Competence, Nurses, Critical care