Association Between Spiritual Care Competence and Palliative Care Quality Among Palliative Care Nurses: A...

Spiritual care is an important component of holistic palliative care. This study aimed to examine the association between spiritual care competence and perceived quality of palliative nursing care among nurses providing palliative care across different clinical settings.

A descriptive, cross-sectional, correlational study was conducted among 160 nurses providing palliative care in palliative care units, oncology wards, and intensive care units between 1 September and 31 October 2024. Data were collected using a Personal Information Form, the Palliative Care Quality Scale for Nurses (PNCQS), and the Spiritual Care Competence Scale (SCCS). Descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression analyses were performed. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.

The mean age of the nurses was 30.43 ± 8.95 years; 77.5% were female, 49.4% had received palliative care training, and 21.9% had received spiritual care training. Overall, 21.9% considered themselves competent in providing spiritual care, while 23.8% identified excessive patient workload as a barrier to providing spiritual care. The mean PNCQS and SCCS scores were 75.08 ± 10.15 and 92.8 ± 12.1, respectively. PNCQS scores were significantly higher among female nurses and nurses with postgraduate education. PNCQS and SCCS scores were weakly but significantly positively correlated (r = 0.161, p = 0.042). In the multiple linear regression analysis, postgraduate education, gender, and SCCS scores were significantly associated with PNCQS scores. The model explained 15.0% of the variance in PNCQS scores (adjusted R² = 0.134).

Spiritual care competence was weakly associated with nurses' perceived quality of palliative nursing care. Given the cross-sectional design and the use of self-reported measures, this association should not be interpreted causally. The limited explanatory power of the regression model suggests that perceived quality of palliative nursing care is influenced by multiple individual, clinical, educational, and contextual factors. Future longitudinal and multimethod research should examine these factors using objective and patient-centered indicators across diverse clinical settings.