Factors affecting spiritual care practices of oncology nurses: a qualitative study

Spiritual care is a component of the holistic nursing approach. But in practice, nurses face many challenges during the implementation of spirituality care. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore the barriers and facilitators affecting spiritual care practices by oncology nurses.

This qualitative study was conducted using a conventional content analysis based on semi-structured interviews with 25 participants, including cancer patients and their family members, oncology nurses, physicians, psychologist, and spiritual researcher-therapists.

The results showed that the two main themes of the study, "spiritual competency" and "spiritual inefficiency" in healthcare organization, were two major factors in implementing spiritual care practices for cancer patients by oncology nurses.

The findings of this study emphasize the necessity of developing coherent spiritual care programs in hospitals and removing administrative barriers. Teaching spiritual care in nursing courses at schools and continuing education programs for training of healthcare team members are necessary. Likewise, forming a spiritual care team with oncology nurses at the center and defining their members' roles and responsibilities are essential. Hospital managers can also make fruitful steps by establishing a monitoring system and identifying the needs and barriers for spiritual care in oncology settings.