Exploration of Clinical Nurses' Perceptions of Spirituality and Spiritual Care

• Published in: The Journal of Nursing Research Vol. 19; no. 4; pp. 250 - 256
• Main Authors: 吳麗芬(Li-Fen Wu), 林麗英(Lih-Ying Lin)
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Chinese
• Published: 台灣 台灣護理學會 01.12.2011; 臺灣護理學會; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc
• Subjects: Adult; clinical nurse; Female; Humans; Male; MEDLINE; Middle Aged; Nursing; Nursing Staff, Hospital - psychology; perception; SCIE; Scopus; Singapore; spiritual care; Spirituality; SSCI; Taiwan; TSCI; TSSCI; 台灣; 感知; 臨床護理人員; 靈性; 靈性照護; Singapore; 臨床護理人員; 靈性照護; Taiwan; 台灣; clinical nurse; 感知; spirituality; 靈性; perception; spiritual care
• ISSN: 1682-3141; 1948-965X
• DOI: 10.1097/JNR.0b013e318236cf78

Background: Florence Nightingale emphasized the need for nurses to honor the psychological and spiritual aspects of patients to promote patients’ health. Whereas Chan’s (2010) study of a public hospital in Singapore presented similar findings, few studies have explored clinical nurses’ perceptions of spirituality.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of specific nurse demographic characteristics in predicting perception differences with regard to spirituality and spiritual care.Methods: The Chinese version of the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale was developed using a translate and backtranslate process, achieving a content validity index of .98. This study used a cross-sectional descriptive survey with 350 clinical nurses as the study sample. Three hundred forty-nine valid questionnaires were returned (response rate, 99.71%). The institutional review board of the hospital approved this study.Results: Most participants were women, ranging in age from 23 to 64 years. Participants’ clinical experience ranged from less than 1 year to 40 years, with a mean experience value of 13.42 years. Participants were distributed among all clinical specialties. Slightly less than half (41.83%) professed no religious belief, and most were not involved in religious activities (55.01%, n = 192). A little over half (53.58%, n = 187) had received spiritual care lessons during nurse training, and more than half (58.74%, n = 205) had received spiritual care continuous education after graduation. This survey found perception of spirituality positively related to holding a master’s degree, 11 to 19 years of clinical experience, specialty in palliative nursing, and having received spiritual care lessons during nursing training or continuing education. Clinical nurseswho held a master’s degree or received spiritual care lessons during continuing education had higher levels of spiritual care perception.Conclusions/Implications for Practice: This study found education to have a positive impact on participants’ perception of spirituality and spiritual care. A higher education level and more spiritual care lessons or training courses were found to increase perception level. Study findings provide preliminary insights into nurses’ perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care in Taiwan. Findings demonstrate an urgent need for additional education programs or training in spiritual care to improve the ability of nurses in catering to the spiritual needs of patients and guide clinical nurses when conducting spiritual care.
背　景南丁格爾強調護理人員必須在病人的精神與靈性方面忠誠，才能促進病人健康，成（2010）在新加坡公立醫院完成的研究也透露了類似的結果。然而目前仍然僅有少數研究探討臨床護理人員的靈性感知。目　的本研究旨在探討台灣臨床護理人員對靈性與靈性照護的感知，及人口特徵造成的差異。方　法運用翻譯與返譯的過程發展中文版靈性及靈性照護量表，中文版的CVI（content validityindex）值為 .98。本研究採橫斷式描述性調查法，發出問卷350份，回收349份，回收率99.71%。結　果99.7%為女性，年齡23至64歲，臨床工作經驗由不足1年至40年，平均13.42年，專長遍及各領域。41.83%的參與者沒有宗教信仰，55.01%沒有宗教活動。53.58%的參與者曾在學校教育中上過靈性照護，58.74%在畢業後參加過靈性照護繼續教育課程。具有碩士學位， 11至19年臨床經驗，專長為安寧療護，在學校或畢業後參加過繼續教育者對靈性感知的得分較高；碩士學位或畢業後參加過繼續教育者對靈性照護感知的得分較高。結論與應用本研究發現，教育對參與者靈性及靈性照護感知具有正向的影嚮力，較高的教育程度、更多的課程與訓練，均能提高護理人員的靈性感知程度。研究結果提供台灣護理人員對靈性與靈性照護的感知之初步見解。建議儘快增加靈性照護教育或訓練，以引導臨床護理人員進行靈性照護