Spiritual Care in Nursing Practice: A Close-Up View

PROBLEM/PURPOSE.To identify spiritual needs and concerns of patients and families and describe the ways nurses address these in everyday practice. METHODS.Using grounded theory methods, interviews with 20 nurses who provided spiritual care as part of their practice.FINDINGS.Similarities, differences, key elements, and outcomes of the process of giving spiritual care were identified.While clinical situations varied, all involved crises of illness, suffering, or death for the patient or family member.Nurses were ready and available to assess cues to spiritual needs or distress and provided direct spiritual intervention.They offered prayer and other forms of spiritual support that facilitated movement toward health and well-being or toward a peaceful death.CONCLUSIONS.Nurses are actively involved in the process of spiritual caregiving.Findings provide support for some dimensions of spiritual distress and caregiving identified previously in the literature and suggest the importance of the nurse's ability to include the patient in dialogue with God.