[Perceptions of spiritual nursing care nurses and nursing students]

This study was designed to clarify how nurses and nursing students perceive their clients' needs for spiritual nursing care, it's practices, and problems. The purpose was to suggest directions for the development of spiritual nursing practice. The major findings are as follows: Respondents primarily perceived spiritual nursing as nursing care designed to help terminally ill patients accept death. Many of the respondents showed a high level of awareness of spiritual nursing care and its necessity. Few of them, however, bad actual experience in spiritual care. Those with experience in spiritual nursing care tend of take either a religious approach or perceived it as the therapeutic use of the self. The greatest problem related to the practice of spiritual care was found to be lack of time. Most of nurses and nursing students were found to be well aware of the needs for spiritual nursing care but were hindered from practising it because of the lack of time. To resolve the problem it was recommended that the scope of nursing practice be readjusted and that pre- and in-service programs should be developed to further heighten nursing students' interest in spiritual nursing care.