The development of a model for delivery of religio-specific nursing care

Religiousness has been described as a component of culture. It provides the patient with a way to cope with disease and illness. Consideration of religiousness allows the nurse a way to fine-tune a holistic, patient-centered approach to nursing care. In response to the mandate issued by the National League for Nursing to include multicultural content in nursing education, the concept of culture can be dissected and analyzed for components that have a positive influence on the patient's health. As a component of culture, religiousness has been extracted for the purpose of developing a conceptual model of religio-specific nursing. This model, based on Rooda's Conceptual Model of Multicultural Nursing, provides direction for research and practice. Regardless of cultural or ethnic background, religio-specific nursing offers a way for nurses to interpret their patients' religiousness in a way that is deliberate and systematic.