Spirituality in nursing: nurses' perceptions about providing spiritual care

Providing spiritual care is an important foundation of nursing and is a requirement mandated by accreditation organizations. Spiritual care is essential in all clinical areas but particularly in home care and hospice. Clinicians may be unable to respond to spiritual needs because of inadequate education or the assumption that spiritual needs should be addressed by clergy, chaplains, or other "spiritual" care providers. In reality, clinicians in the home may be in the best position to offer spiritual support when caring for patients at home at end of life. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine relationships between spirituality and nurses' providing spiritual care. Professional nurses (n = 69) working in 2 large healthcare organizations completed the Perceptions of Spiritual Care Questionnaire. Approximately, 33% of the nurses worked in home care. Significant correlations were found among those nurses whose reported nursing education programs adequately prepared them to meet spiritual needs and taught ways to incorporate spiritual care into practice and those who did not.