Nurses' experiences assessing the spirituality of terminally ill patients in acute clinical practice

To explore and describe how nurses define spirituality and incorporate spiritual care into their clinical practice.

A two-phase, mixed-methods, explanatory descriptive design was adopted. Sixteen nurses working in an acute medical ward completed a purpose-designed questionnaire. This was followed by unstructured focus group interviews. The data generated was analysed using a thematic coding process.

Four themes were identified: understanding spirituality, assessment of spirituality, difficulties in meeting spiritual needs, and education. The exploration of the nurses' experiences showed that they did not clearly define or recognize the concept of spirituality, but they did recognize an aspect of patient care that required a transition away from a technical to a humane response.

Despite the lack of a clear definition of spirituality and application of an established spiritual assessment tool, nurses do assess spirituality and incorporate spiritual care into their clinical practice, even in acute care settings.