Spiritual care in Christian parish nursing

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Theology
• Sociology

Background:

• Growing interest in spirituality and spiritual care in nursing.
• Lack of consensus on conceptualizing and providing spiritual care.
• Need for a theory to guide parish nurses in spiritual care provision.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a substantive theory explaining the spiritual care process used by parish nurses.
• To describe how parish nurses provide spiritual care within Christian church contexts.
• To integrate findings with existing spiritual care literature.

Main Methods:

• Grounded theory method employed with 10 American parish nurses.
• Data collected between 1998-2001 through interviews and verbatim transcriptions.
• Constant comparative analysis of over 50 reported incidents.

Main Results:

• A Basic Social Process theory, 'Bringing God Near,' emerged as the core category.
• The process involves phases: trusting God, relationship building, opening to God, faith activation, and spiritual renewal.
• The essence is facilitating a connection with God during health challenges.

Conclusions:

• Parish nurses' spiritual role is to facilitate spiritual strengthening as guided by God.
• Spiritual care can restore well-being and foster faith development.
• The developed theory serves as a conceptual guide for providing and teaching spiritual care in church settings.