Spirituality: its relevance and purpose for clinical nursing in a new millennium

• Nurses often make a link between spirituality and religion. This is evidenced in nursing documents when comments about the patient’s religious faith are placed in the space devoted to spirituality. • While religion may inform and offer direction to an individual’s spirituality the two concepts are not the same. In terms of analogy, hydrogen and oxygen combine to make water although each brings its own defining characteristics to balance the chemical equation. • Thus, there may be a synergy and symbiosis between religion and spirituality but the essence of each remains unique; indeed, a person’s spirituality can thrive irrespective of religious creed – orthodox or otherwise. • In this paper, we will develop a narrative that articulates and offers the defining characteristics of spirituality. This will be coupled with a framework that seeks to explain the workings and dynamics of spirituality in clinical nursing.