Abstract

Spirituality is known to play a significant role in patients’ well-being and quality of life. Responding to patients’ spiritual needs is considered to be an essential element of high quality medical care. Consequently, it seems logical that there is a professional requirement for nurses to achieve competence in the delivery of spiritual care. This study aims to examine the impact of nurses’ spiritual well-being on patients’ spiritual care. A total of 210 nurses working in critical care units completed Basic Psychological Needs questionnaire and Spiritual Care Competence Scale. 5.8% of nurses provided spiritual care at a poor level; 53.4% at an optimal level; and 39.8% at a highly desirable level. There were negative significant relations between the average scores of spiritual well-being with: age (p<0.04); and clinical experience (p<0.02). There were positive significant relations between the receipt of training by nurses in the principles of spirituality with: the level of spiritual well-being (p<0.003); and the level of spiritual care (p<0.02). Overall, a significant relationship was observed between spiritual well-being and spiritual care (p<0.001). The study has demonstrated that there was a positive relationship between nurses’ spiritual well-being and the provision of spiritual care. Implementation of strategies that might develop spiritual well-being in nurses would be of great benefit in catering for the spiritual needs of patients.

Keywords: Spiritual well-being; Spiritual care; Nursing; Critical care units